Revisions Made
by Fee4444
Summary: Sequel to 'Revising Childhood' and probably shouldn't be read alone. De-age Ziva fic. Gibbs struggles with the work/home balance when he comes off sabbatical and questions whether he can really be a parent to a child again.
1. Trick or Treat

**Yes, I know this took longer to get up than I told you it would but I wanted to make sure I had several chapters ready before posting. As always, I'm happy to take ideas and although the first five chapters are already written I can modify them to suit. The length of this story will depend on reviews and how well it is received.**

 **If you haven't read my previous story 'Revising Childhood' then I strongly recommend you go back to it before reading this.**

 **Thanks.**

"Ground rules."

October 31st and Ziva was going out 'trick or treating' for the first time. Gibbs' mind had gone over everything that could go wrong-mainly what _Ziva_ could make go wrong-and he cemented on several ground rules she had to follow to the letter.

"You stick with Tony like glue, do not disappear or we'll be having words." He made sure she had taken that in before he continued. "Don't go into anyone's house unless Tony goes in with you. When he decides it's time to come home, it's time to come home. I don't want to hear that you were giving him cheek or that you 'tricked' anyone on your way around tonight. Deal?"

"Deal." Ziva nodded.

Tony was coming around at about quarter to seven so he could take her out. Ziva had made Gibbs promise she wouldn't go out until at least one person had hit their house so she wouldn't be the only one on the street. Tony hated halloween but Gibbs had a feeling that their little escapade may change all that.

"How long until he gets here?" Ziva whined. "It's almost seven now."

"There's only a few kids out right now." Gibbs told her as he peered out the window. "Get your costume on. He'll come."

As Ziva disappeared up to her room to get dressed he sorted the treats out into a few bowls to go by the door. Although most people gave out monkey nuts as well, he had decided against it. At the end of the street there was a young boy who was allergic and he had a feeling there may be several others. Before he could turn away from the door there was a knock and the sounds of three or four kids shouting 'trick or treat'. He answered it to reveal a princess, a witch and a vampire. He dished out the sweets just as Dinozzo parked.

"You made it." Gibbs commented.

"Yeah well the little demons egged my car." He shot back, waving his hand towards his vehicle.

Gibbs smirked as he let the younger man in. He poured the coffee, one in a mug and the other in a to-go-cub, handing the latter to his new arrival. Tony's face dropped.

"I'm taking her?" He blanched at the thought of being out with all those 'little demons'.

"Either that or you can watch the house."

"I'm taking her." Tony confirmed before turning round to shout up the stairs, "You coming Ziva?"

"Minute!" She shouted back.

A few minutes later he felt something poking his back and turned around. She pulled back the plastic samurai sword. She was dressed as a ninja, one samurai sword in her hand and the other crossed on her back.

Tony's face lit up. "Whoa! The little ninja's a little ninja."

He went to pat her balaclava covered head but she twisted his arm and forced him to his knees. He cried in complaint and tapped the floor twice in surrender. There was another knock at the door which caused Ziva to leap off of Tony and rush to the door. The door flew open and she pointed the sword to the princess' (of which there had already been three) neck.

" _Koko ni okura reta hito no hanashi_." Ziva muttered threateningly. (Speak of who sent you here.)

Gibbs had translated it for her a few days before to Japanese. Japan had been the origin of the ninja and she wanted to be as accurate as possible. Her costume was even a navy-ish colour as it would have been more likely to be. The whole day before she'd been side walking quietly and effectively to perfect her craft.

The princess on front of her looked terrified despite being two or three years older. Tony saved the damsel in distress by shuffling the ninja away and dropping a large handful of the brightly covered chocolates and toffees into her bag. When she had passed, Ziva grinned and slipped out the door, waiting under the cover of oncoming darkness for her chauffeur to follow. Tony shot a pained look back at Gibbs before following her. _This is gonna be a long night_.

At each house Tony stood on the pavement while Ziva went up to the houses. The first one was Gibbs' elderly neighbour who had taken a shine to Ziva and-although didn't recognise her immediately-was more than happy to start her night out on a high by tipping what Tony could see must have been half the packet of lollies. Ziva placed her hands together and bowed before returning to Tony and sauntering along to the next house.

"Hey, Abby loves halloween. How come she isn't here?" He paused a moment. "How could you even keep her away?"

"I asked for you." Ziva replied in an affectionately curt kind of way. Before he could comment with a sarcastic reply that would ruin the moment she'd rushed ahead to the next house to be served her sugary bag of delights. Fortunately no kids went around his apartment block, in fact he wasn't even sure any kids bar one lived there. To assure himself that one would not be causing any trouble (this year and previously) he'd dropped by two full sized chocolate bars.

By about half eight he was itching to start heading back to Gibbs'. They'd already hit every house on her neighbourhood and had now moved onto the next one. Here there were substantially less pumpkins and porch lights on. Like the others, Ziva made her way up to the house alone. An older man-who could never be mistaken for a gentleman-answered, overweight and balding. Seeing Ziva just seemed to make the man's night. Tony watched as Ziva went tense immediately. Her ninja senses were tingling.

"Trick or treat." She smiled despite herself. There was no point turning back now.

"Hey darling, would you like to come in? My wife would love to see your costume." He grinned back like the Cheshire Cat.

Tony stalked forward. "No, she wouldn't."

The man's face dropped however he dished out the treats and shut the door politely. The man was probably just a sad old man who, although should not be near children, was of no threat at all.

Tony still decided to call it quits. "Come on, Ziva. Let's get you back to your dad."

And she didn't complain.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

When they returned to the house both had recovered from the potential (although unlikely) threat. Ziva bounded in and onto her father's lap who had been watching the newly bought TV. Although it was no longer a rickety old black and white box, Gibbs still insisted on watching old fashioned glitchy movies that had been more at home on his old set.

"Daddy, it was great. We went around all the houses here and all around. Almost everyone answered. Look how much candy I got!" She almost squealed.

Gibbs then turned his sights to the exhausted man on front of him. Near panting from the walk, he was also laden with three full bags from the night. Despite the sorry state there was a twinkle in his eyes that suggested he'd enjoyed himself.

"Coffee?" Gibbs offered.

"Nah, I'll just drive my egg stained car home." Tony sighed, placing the bags down carefully and taking out a mini pack of m&m's. He opened the door and stared on in shock. "How come my car's not egg stained?"

"Couple'a kids were egging my neighbour's house. Told them I'd set their dads on 'em if they didn't clean it off."

"So how's my car clean?"

"Got 'em to do your's too."

"Remind me never to mess with you." Tony said impressed. "Anyway, some of us have work tomorrow. Night ninja, night boss."

Gibbs shut the door behind him and-as there had been no more gouley children for at least forty minutes-locked it. He turned to see Ziva on the couch with one of her bags on her lap changing the TV program.

"Hey missy. PJ's first."

Ziva trotted along up the stairs. A lot had changed in the past few months. They'd replaced the TV a few months ago. Actually Tony had replaced the TV and Gibbs had had to get used to that. One day it had just arrived. Meanwhile McGee had helped him hang the tire swing in the garden. That coupled with the trampoline made a very happy child in the garden. Still not content, she was insisting on a treehouse. In the last few weeks they'd sorted things out between the team. Wednesday night was movie night with Tony and the two geniuses were on call for sleepovers. So far all of Tony's movies had been age appropriate however Gibbs was well aware that may not always be the case.

She came back down the stairs and catapulted herself onto his lap, completely knocking the air out of him. Ziva reached up and stretched her armed behind his neck. He looked down to her.

"Did you have fun?" Gibbs asked, still wincing from pain.

"Uh huh," She nodded as she reached out into her bag and pulled out a marshmallow-ish, chocolate snack.

"Half an hour then bed." He said firmly. She began whining without looking away from the TV. "Or you can go now if you'd rather?"

She whined again but it was a different kind, one he was prepared to ignore. For the next half hour they sat as she munched on the treats from her night. When he felt her breathing even out he glanced down to her, her eyes shut and a chocolate bar slipping out of her weakening grasp. Gibbs removed the sweet, wrapping it up before placing it into her bag and kissing her forehead to wake her. He carried her up the stairs as he eyes fluttered, her head continuing to drop her his shoulder.

"Brush teeth." He commanded, placing her feet firmly on the floor.

He sat at the end of her bed as he waited for her to shuffle back in. Ziva climbed up, plopping down onto the mattress as Gibbs tucked her in.

"Can you read to me for a little bit?" She yawned as she snuggled into the warm duvet and pillow.

Her eyes continued to bat shut and he was certain that it would take about a page and a half for her to drop off. Opening the book by her bedside to the appropriate page, he began on chapter 6, 'Pig and Pepper' of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. Already it was well battered and read several times. There was another copy of it in Kelly's room however he had bought Ziva one specifically for he couldn't allow himself to give it to another child. He'd been surprised, if he were honest, when she had loved the book so much. _He was looking up into the sky all the time he was speaking, and this Alice thought decidedly uncivil._ Gibbs glanced up from the page and, placing the book on the bedside table, he wished her goodnight and left the room.

He took himself down the stairs to clear up the mess of the day: the halloween treats that were flowing out of the too small bag; the ninja sword that hadn't made its way up the stairs; the colouring pens; the coffee mug; the spilt hot chocolate that had only just caught his eye. It had taken a while to get used to. After she had completely de-aged his house had suddenly started to look as though a bomb had detonated. Every night there it was, another large and unmistakeable mess of a young child's to clean up. He wasn't sure how he intended to handle it after he went back to work. On Monday Ziva had her first day of school and his sabbatical was up after Tuesday. He'd tried to stretch it to the following Monday but Vance had told him undoubtedly that wasn't happening. Fair enough, he'd thought, but you couldn't blame a guy for trying. Starting on the mess, he sighed. Another long stretch 'til the father got to sleep.

 **Tell me what you think, remember reviews are very important especially at the start of a story. I just thought this chapter would be a good introduction Thanks :)**


	2. First Day of School

**Thanks for the influx of reviews :) Depending on reviews I'll update again on Wednesday or Thursday.**

At 7:15 on the morning Gibbs had simultaneously been dreading and looking forward to, he found a small lump curled up in his bed. He smiled, brushing hair out of her face. It was the first day of school and neither of them quite knew how to feel. It started at nine however he had been asked to arrive twenty minutes early so he could go over things with the school and her teacher. Honestly, Gibbs wasn't entirely sure what to expect. It wasn't a public school and they had received scholarship for half of the bill, the other half was being paid for out of Ziva's old inheritance from her mother. He'd been shocked when he found the huge lump sum in an account that McGee had transferred into his name. Money, and a lot of it, that hadn't been touched since Rivka had passed almost twenty years ago.

After taking a shower, Gibbs had returned to find Ziva had vacated the room. In the kitchen she was sitting at the table still in her pyjamas with a book in her hands. He was uncertain of the title and couldn't remember buying it but he put that to one side as he put on toast for her. He had been allowing her to make it herself for a while however when she tried to fish out the toast with a knife a few weeks ago, Gibbs had taken up his better judgement. The toast popped and he buttered it, placing it under her nose.

"Once you're done that, get changed." He told her, kissing her crown as he turned away to pour himself some coffee.

"C-can we make it next Monday?" She asked in a small voice. "I...I um...have not been feeling...I feel sick."

Gibbs looked at her as she met his eyes, a firm look of I'm-sticking-with-this-lie-even-though-it's-awful on her face. He sighed. He'd been expecting something along those lines. He was just grateful she was such an awful liar.

"No, Ziva." He spoke softly. "It'll be fine."-Gibbs took his coffee and sat down across from her-"We're gonna meet your teacher at twenty to nine and she's gonna talk to us, tell you what to expect."

"But I'm sick." She protested, her voice quiet and her head drooped. "I might pass on my germs to the other kids."

"It's just nerves." Gibbs clarified, even though he was sure she wasn't feeling sick in the least. "Get that down you."

The next half hour was spent with her slowly eating her toast. The second slice took a whole twenty minutes with miniscule pieces and at least fifteen bites for each one. He'd managed to get changed and clean shaven before she'd even got to that one. Gibbs sat on the couch gritting his teeth with a newspaper on front of him, his eyes focused on one word he was too frustrated to read passed. 8:03. He took another minute to steady his temper before speaking.

"Go get dressed." He managed exceptionally well.

"But I'm not finished yet."

There was one final morsel he was certain she could make last another half hour. That was one of her tricks. She did something as slowly as humanly possible-such as taking twenty minutes to get through one slice of toast-purposefully to push someone's-usually his-buttons so she could have a reason to get angry to postpone the undesirable activity even further. He was getting better at it now however he was imperfect-as all humans, especially parents-are and he let his temper get the better of him too often and participated in her screaming match. This, however he was sure, was not going to be one of those times.

Gibbs got up and knelt down beside her with an arm around her back, kissing her cheek lovingly before speaking. "I know you're scared Ziver, but I'm not gonna go until you say it's ok."-Her eyes prickled with tears but she didn't look up-"I'm never gonna leave you if you need me. This is nothing to be afraid of. I firmly believe there's nothin' you can't handle. Come on, Ziva, we'll go get you changed and then you can play for a little bit. Deal?"

It took a few moments however she did nod. He'd usually leave her to get changed herself as she was more than capable however he felt if he didn't go with her she would end up in her cubby hole for the next hour. In her room she opened the drawers and pulled out a shirt and trousers, dumping them on her bed in uncooperative silence. Gibbs knelt down on front of her and pulled her pyjama top up over her head. Before he removed it completely he tickled her and she burst into laughter, fighting both her attacker and the top that, although was not covering her head was stuck on her arms.

"Daddy, stop it!" She cried, finally working her way out of the top to try and catch his hands, still breathless from giggling.

He pulled the fresh shirt over her head before helping her out of the pyjama bottoms and reaching for the cargo pants for her to step into. He paused.

"Underwear, Ziva." She fished out a pair from the drawers and pulled them on before stepping into the trousers. Content, he nodded. "Done: hair, teeth, out."

With that final word ringing in her ears she became rigid and unhelpful again. Although they didn't really have time, he knew amusing her as they got ready was more likely to get them swiftly out the door than strictly telling her to move it. That, he knew, would result in full stubborn, two year old tantrum, screaming match mode. As he brushed her hair he pulled it up as though he were going to put it in a ponytail and swished it down into her face. Although the mass barely scraped her shoulders, he managed to swoosh it about her face effectively eliciting a laugh from both parties as she swatted at him in mild annoyance.

Eventually Gibbs had managed to get Ziva in the car with her school bag seated beside her, the corners of her lips pulled up in a smile. They were out slightly later than he would have rathered however he'd got her in the car without too much of a fuss. Personally, he would have seen that as a result. They managed to arrive at the school in just enough time to make it to the office for twenty to. Gibbs took his daughter's hand as he led her through the semi-filled parking lot and into the nice looking building. It was single storey with a three foot blue fence around it, the playground filled with hopscotch trials and benches and a climbing frame. The office was surprisingly bright and cheery with a man sitting behind the desk.

"Ziva Gibbs, we've to meet her teacher." Gibbs told the man.

"First day?" He asked then pointed down the corridor, "Make a left and then another left, second door on the right."

They followed his instructions where they found a reasonably sized classroom with a young woman at a desk. He knocked to get her attention.

"Hello," She beamed with a warm smile, "you must be Ziva Gibbs, we're glad to have you on board."

Usually not a particularly shy child, Gibbs was slightly surprised when her arm coiled around his leg. Recovering, he shook the woman's hand and took a seat.

"So, we're in a class of eleven, Ziva makes twelve. Today we'll give her a few tests to see where she's sitting right now, don't be worried dear, they're just little things, nothing to worry about." The woman had directed the last comments to Ziva as she was aware most of her pupils became worried when the word 'test' was mentioned. "We have three individual tutors in this class with four kids to each. They make sure all the work given is at a suitable level, not too easy, not too advanced. Of course, I'm the teacher and most of the time I'm teaching and overseeing but we like to keep up to date with each pupil's individual needs. Oh-wait, I'm Miss Alice Lannert. I always forget to introduce myself." She laughed herself along.

Gibbs was reasonably comfortable with the woman, sure she-and the school-was the right thing for Ziva. Ziva was sitting in the chair beside him looking around the room. In the middle were chairs slightly spaced out like any other school, the windows were large and encompassed most of one of the wall. At the back were huge bookcases stacked full, enough to put her own meager shelves to shame. Along the other wall were boxes with individual books and jotters with names above them. Above the only empty box was her own name in large font: Ziva.

"Mr Gibbs, if you could just fill out a few forms, that'd be great." Miss Lannert passed across a small booklet to him. "Ziva, you can just pop to our little library and pick a reading book for class. It'll live in your box 'til you're finished and then you can swap it."

Ziva nodded, leaving the discussion to pick out a book, most of which she couldn't reach. Gibbs passed back the forms after adding his signature to the last page. He was certain most of the information he had just given them he had also put down when they had made their application however he went along with it all the same.

"Ok, so now we're all sorted we have about five minutes before the bell rings and we can introduce you. Mr Gibbs, you can leave now, she's in capable hands."

Gibbs looked down to Ziva who gave him a firm nod. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her cheek even though he knew she'd be embarrassed by the display of affection on front of her new teacher.

"At the other end of a phone." He assured her, kissing her forehead before letting her slip out of his grasp and heading to leave. "Love you."

"Ani Ohevet Otkha ( _I love you_ )." She replied.

He had grown fond of that phrase, more so in Hebrew than in English. She'd never had any problem with English but the most natural, most familiar words rolled off her tongue in Hebrew.

Ziva stood at the front with Miss Lannert when the bell rang and her handful of classmates entered cheerfully. They were all aged about five or six but she was painfully aware she must be the youngest in the class. As they sat down she located her desk, middle row closest to the window.

"Hello class, I trust you had a good weekend. This is Ziva, she's joining the class." She beamed then turned to Ziva. "Tell them about yourself."

Never a good public speaker, the child shuffled about on the spot before starting in as small a voice as she felt appropriate. "I am Ziva. I'll be five on the twelfth. I was born in Israel."

Ziva looked up to the teacher to see if that was enough. She was told to sit down and she released a breath of absolute relief. After ten minutes or so of shuffling about and kids getting work out Ziva was given a few tests to work through. Some of them were as basic as adding and subtracting, others she could tell were to check her reading and writing abilities such as telling her to continue a story from the passage above. After a while her tutor came over, a man she was told to simply call Lewis.

"I heard you're multilingual." He greeted. "I love kids like that, we have a few in here. How many languages you got, kid?"

"Ten." Ziva replied with complete confidence. He laughed in disbelief. "You do not believe me?"

"No, kid. I've been here long enough to believe just about anything you guys tell me." He continued laughing, pulling up a chair to sit at the other side of her desk. "Well I'm the language tutor here but I doubt there's much I can teach you, huh?"

She smiled. She liked this man. He was kind and easy to talk to which allowed her to lower her guard. "What do you speak?"

"English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian and Chinese." Lewis replied. "Which do you wanna use today?"

The grin stretched across her face as though someone had just given her free range in a mall. "Italiano?"

He continued their conversation in perfect Italian. " _Where did you learn your languages_?"

" _My Ima taught me but she died a while ago. My new father adopted me_." She replied, internally cringing at the mention of her mother.

" _Sorry to hear that._ Emily _is your only competitor for languages. She is fluent in four right now and has the basics of another three_." Lewis called a girl she presumed to be Emily over. She was a tall girl with long dark hair. "Emily, Ziva. Ziva, Emily. _I think you could be friends. Emily's in our tutor group as well_."

" _Hello_." Emily greeted in Italian as well before switching to Hebrew. " _My grandmother lives in Israel. She taught me Hebrew. I'm six_."

"And now we're out of my capabilities. I'll let you two geniuses bond for a while." With that Lewis left to go and catch up with one of the boys from his group.

" _It gets better. I did not like my first day either._ " She told her as she pulled round the chair their tutor had left behind. "Lewis _is nice. He is helping me learn German. Right now I know Italian, Hebrew and French but I am learning German, Spanish and Russian_."-Suddenly she switched back to English-"Jack also knows Spanish but nobody else knows any other languages but Jack's not really my friend. Sophie's my best friend, you can play with us at playtime if you want."

"Toda." Ziva said as her new acquaintance returned back to her desk at the front of the class. She supposed school wouldn't be too bad. A wall of books; a climbing frame; others with an encyclopaedia of languages; she could cope with all that.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

With two days left of sabbatical Gibbs was unsure of how to spend his time. His basement workshop was often left unused for days now he had a child to fill up his time however the beginnings of a boat (one of which would have been finished by now in his previous life) sat ready to be worked on. Every five minutes or so he glanced down at his phone. No news is good news. Gibbs was well aware that wasn't true however he had left her in a school, not a death camp. She was fine. Probably. He knew for a fact that if she had any complaints-any in the very least-he would be made aware of it immediately.

Sanding the frame work of his boat brought him back. Despite the fact it was now November and he had had Ziva living with him for months now he probably wouldn't be surprised if he saw the adult Ziva slouch down those steps to sit with him in silence for a while. _Comfort_ , he would muse, _silent comfort._

But he wouldn't change their current situation for anything. He just prayed that his little girl was doing alright on her own. She was strong, independant and sure of herself. If Ziva couldn't tough out a class of twelve children no-one could.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

It was lunch time and Ziva wasn't _quite_ sure what to do with herself. Her sandwich and juice had been finished in the canteen and now she was standing at the far end of the playground watching the tens of other children playing. Emily and Sophie were off with skipping ropes. She had tried to get along with them however Sophie had taken an immediate dislike. She was the only one in the playground completely on her own. By a tree there were two boys reading comic books, together without being together and by a bench there were three kids involved in their own activities. Ziva however was alone alone.

She looked around trying to find something to distract herself from her apparent loneliness. There were four trees dotted about in the grounds however the lower branches of all of them had been cut off to stop them from climbing. Ziva was undeterred. She could scale one of them as it was thin enough for her to wrap her legs around it properly for long enough to reach the first branch. It took her about twenty seconds to reach the lowest branch. There had been a surprising amount of places to put her hands. It took her another few minutes to get up higher, successfully weaving in and out. Once comfortable with her height, she sat down with confidence. From there she could see out on the playground and the school. Ziva had just decided to sit there everyday when a teacher rushed over in panic.

"Young lady, get down from there, now!" She called up in near hysterics.

"No, thank you. I'm good." Ziva replied.

"Get down, now!" The woman shouted, gesturing for another teacher to come over. "What is your name? I'm calling your mother!"

"You are going to need a seance."

By this time Miss Lannert had come over and three or four boys were watching her in apparent awe. In other news, Emily and Sophie were sending her disapproving looks and whispering behind hands.

"Ziva, honey. I don't want to call your father to pick up on your very first day." Lannert told her in a kind but firm voice. "Come on, love."

Ziva sighed as the bell rang which dissipated the crowd of all but the two teachers and three of the four boys. The thought of trying to teach Lewis basic Hebrew was enough to draw her back down from the tree. She was well aware that in a few days he would want to teach her and she was determined to make the most of her 'settling in' time while she had it. She returned down the tree. When she got to the bottom branch she hesitated for a moment which was enough to get Miss Lannert to step forward to lift her down.

"Class now." The older, meaner teacher she hadn't met before snapped. "We'll be talking with your _parent_ or _carer_ when they pick you up."

Obviously she had been offended by the seance comment. On her way back to class she was met by approval by two of the boys, the third one shooting forward to class now the drama was over.

"We're in Mr Bridge's class." The taller of the two told her despite the fact the information was irrelevant to her. "That was pretty cool. My brother says you've to always make a big stunt on your first day so they know who they're messing with. I was going to but…"

"He chickened out," The other boy laughed. They got to the building. "Bye."

She waved goodbye to them as she entered her own class. Immediately she noticed the sharp contrast between those who approved with her 'stunt' and those who didn't. She had definitely made an enemy out of Sophie however Emily was still up for grabs. With an air of natural confidence she swept passed the lot and dropped herself to her seat with a strong smile.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Gibbs entered the office with a discontented sigh. He'd received a call saying the deputy head wanted to speak to him after school. He could only imagine what Ziva could have done on the first half of her very first day. After the bell rang kids filtered out around him. Eventually Miss Lannert came out with Ziva trotting along beside them. Both were smiling and seemingly chatting about something positive. He wanted to hope that this was a normal part of every first day at this school however he was very certain that he wasn't quite that lucky.

"Hi daddy." Ziva lulled, looking up at him with the most innocent look she could muster.

"Don't you 'hi daddy' me." He sighed without too much negativity behind it. Gibbs turned his attention to her teacher. "What did she do?"

"You have a very intelligent little girl with a very natural tree climbing ability." She grinned. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ziva. The deputy head, Mrs Stephens will see you shortly."

Ziva waved a cheerful goodbye at the teacher she'd evidently taken a liking to. To be fair, it could have been a lot worse.

 **Make sure you leave a review :D Thanks for reading.**


	3. Audition

**I know this was promised for Thursday but I kinda forgot. Sorry.**

School on Tuesday had run a lot easier. While Mrs Stephens had painted a rather unfavoured side of the tree climbing incident, being a cop he knew when to read in between the lines for a more unbiased account. Ziva had promised not to climb any of the trees again and that had been enough for him. While the deputy had not seemed to approve, he had never much cared for what people thought. That morning Ziva had got up and out as though school were no place to be feared. Gibbs had held his breath most of the day waiting for a call from the school however when he was parked outside the building at 2:58 still with no call he was grinning like the cat that got the cream. The bell sounded and countless children rushed out, some of which sauntered along to the bus stop while others climbed into waiting cars. He caught sight of Ziva quickly. She had her backpack slung over one shoulder as she chatted away with two boys. When she caught his eyes she waved goodbye and ran to the car, throwing open the door and climbing in.

"Who're they?" He asked as he reversed out of the car park and into school traffic.

"Aiden and Michael. They're in Miss Bridge's class. They're _seven_." She told him enthusiastically.

"Uh huh." He nodded to her as he tried to steer out to no avail.

"I mean, Michael _just_ turned seven but first graders never make friends with our class." Ziva spoke as though she were completely informed on the subject rather than it being her second day.

"So what makes you special?" He asked, trying to show as much enthusiasm.

"I can swear in-" She suddenly cut herself off. "S-scare people...well."

"Uh huh." Gibbs was more than well aware that she was not planning to end the sentence in that way. "You stayin' at Tony's tonight?"

"For movie night?" She asked, straightening up at the idea of losing her own bed that night.

"You can stay over or you can come back home after but tomorrow I need you up and out on time." He reiterated.

"Hey, I got up and out this morning too." Ziva whined, hearing the subtle jab.

"Not gonna expect another miracle."

"Fine. I'll stay at Tony's." She said pompously, pouting as though offended.

He grinned, turning left at the green light. Ziva had never lost her astute perception of where they were going, something she was probably born with.

"Where are we going?" She asked right on cue.

"There's a dance/ballet club thing." He explained, checking his mirror before making a turn. "Said you could join the beginners class but you can audition for one of the more advanced ones."

That put a smile on her face as she bounced about on her seat. Gibbs grinned. It had taken him ages to find her a class since she'd expressed an interest a few weeks back. As most children's classes started in September he struggled to find anywhere that would accept admissions later. He didn't remember kid's after school classes being quite so strict when he had Kelly.

When they pulled up outside the gym the class was held in, Ziva threw her seatbelt off before the car was fully stopped.

"Ziva!" Gibbs shouted. "Put your seatbelt back on, now."

Reluctantly she clicked the seat belt back into place as she rolled her eyes. He droved forward about another foot and a half before stopping again and removing the keys. Gibbs turned round to face her.

"If you keep doing that I'll get a seat belt you can't undo. It came with the child's seat." He warned. The last time she had done that she'd got out faster than he could stop her and opened the door onto a car. Fortunately no-one, nor the car, was hurt.

"Those are for babies." She said through clenched teeth, imagining what her friends would say if they saw her being unstrapped going to school.

"There's an easy way to stop it."

He got himself out the car. It sounded unreasonable as they'd just about been parked but Ziva had a tendency to stretch the rules and if he didn't have their limitations firmly placed it was a lot more hassle. For example the rule 'don't undo your seatbelt until the car is firmly stopped' does not stretch to 'until the car has _almos_ t stopped' otherwise he'd never get her to keep it on. He opened the child lock doors on the way out whilst being met by a glare from his daughter. The first time she'd been met with that she'd kicked it for several minutes then shouted at Gibbs afterwards. She hadn't liked the timeout that had accompanied it.

At reception someone pointed the pair down the hall where they were expected. They looked through the window in the door to where a woman-obviously the instructor-was standing. Gibbs took his daughter's hand supportively and entered. The woman looked up and gestured for them to come over.

"Mr Gibbs." She greeted, shaking his hand. "We only have fifteen minutes before my teenage, advanced class comes in. It'd be good if we could have this finished up by then. Ziva, was it?"-Ziva nodded, suddenly feeling a rush of anxiety. She'd quit ballet when she was twelve and suddenly wasn't sure it was such a good idea for her to be back-"Can you dance in what you're wearing or do you need to change?

Ziva looked down at what she was wearing. Even though she only had a short period of time she knew she couldn't stretch her legs up high enough in her jeans. "I need to change."

"There's some things around your size next door, hurry up." Ziva slipped out of Gibbs' hand and followed the woman's direction. "I know you think I'm being harsh, Mr Gibbs, but if I don't start my class on time then my classes will all be late for the rest of the day."

She came back a minute later in a white dress and pink ballet shoes. It was obvious her feet were trying to burst out of the material. The teacher, who still hadn't supplied her name, put on some music and asked her to show her a little bit. Her brown eyes locked on Gibbs' for support and he nodded. He didn't take his eyes off her the entire time. He thought it was perfect and brilliant, obvious that she had had many dedicated lessons before, which surprised him all the more when the music was abruptly cut off. Ziva looked up, offended.

"Go get changed," the woman told her, jutting her head back in the direction of the changing rooms. Once out of hearing range, she turned to Gibbs. "She is very good for her age, talented however she was at parts...sloppy. How long since she had a taught lesson?"

Unwilling to say the real number which was completely unbelievable, he supplied, "a while."

The woman nodded as though saying 'obviously'. "She can come to my intermediate class on Thursdays, here at 3:30. You'll need to get her a fitting pair of pumps."

Ziva returned and the two of them left in silence. It took her until they were nearly at reception for her to speak. "How bad was it?"

He threw her up into his arms. "First class on Thursday, intermediate."

Her face lit up. "Do you promise to come?"

Gibbs met her eyes and very seriously said, "promise."

"Daddy, are you going to work tomorrow?" She asked.

Gibbs unlocked the car and slipped Ziva in her seat. "Uh huh."

When he got in the front she said, "Has anyone died?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to pick me up from school?"

"Yep."

"What if someone does die? Will you still pick me up?"

"Yep."

"What if-"

"Ziva, it'll be as if it's any other day, ok?" He held his breath, desperately hoping she'd accept that as he couldn't be bothered with further questioning.

She paused for a moment. "Ok."

He let out a sigh of relief, praying for at least five minutes of quiet.

"What if a bad guy catches you?" _Damn it, so close._

"They won't." He tried to assure her.

"You can't _know_ that. _What if_?" Ziva continued, meeting his eyes forcefully in the mirror.

"Then I'll kindly explain that I have a little girl to pick up and that we'll have to rearrange this meeting." He sighed.

When they were close enough they could see the house Gibbs watched Ziva's hands shoot to her seat belt catch.

"Ziva, do you want the other seatbelt?" He warned.

"No."

"Then move your hands."

By that point he'd already pulled up at the house however she pulled away her hands for a couple of seconds before clicking the seat belt and waiting for the door to be opened. He opened the back door, reminding her she was going to Tony's in forty minutes and had to get her stuff together. Up stairs she put her backpack on her bed and pulled out her yellow folder with the word 'HOMEWORK' on it in big black letters. Currently there was only one sheet in it with Friday the 9th at the top. The task, to anyone else, would be simple but for her it was slightly more complicated. Her teacher had set them individual assignments. Ziva's was what was Israel like, her family, culture. There were two problems with it, firstly she didn't want to tell them about her Abba and Ima, her baby sister and big brother but secondly she wasn't allowed to. She was being asked about the history of Ziva Milken, not Ziva David. Gibbs had told her over and over again about her background but she couldn't be certain what little things she could say that would show cracks in their stories. She'd started it several times since she'd been given it yesterday but each time it had ended in a crumpled piece of paper in the bin.

This time was no different. After only two lines she threw the attempt into the bin by her desk, stuffed the folder back in her bag in frustration and took out her other bagpack to go to Tony's. Just a few weeks ago she had found out he'd spent hours before their movie night sorting through his collection and reviews online trying to find the best pick. He had been slightly out of touch with movies for children and had really wanted her to enjoy herself. Tony wasn't the only one that had gone well out of his way for her. Abby had brought round a huge collection of Disney movies from 'Beauty and the Beast' to 'Mulan', from 'The Lion King' to 'Oscar and company' that she had recommended. She hadn't managed to watch most of them but of the ones she had her favourite had been 'Mulan'. Somehow it had struck a chord with her.

"Ziva, you ready to go?" Gibbs called up the stairs.

She grabbed her bag and trotted down the stairs. At the fourth from the bottom Ziva paused, crouched down then, when she thought he was ready, leapt into his arms. It usually worked. This time however, he was unprepared and had barely managed to grab one of her legs and the scruff of her top before she fell.

"God, Ziva!" He snapped as she burst into laughter. He smiled despite himself, shuffling her into a more comfortable position. "I called Abby, she's gonna take you to get the pump-thingys for your ballet tomorrow."

He dropped her back down. "Where's your school bag?"

"Oh, I forgot it."

"Car's unlocked." He told her as he climbed the stairs.

Gibbs pushed the door open, spotting the bag on her bed. Just as he was about to zip it up he spotted the yellow folder under it. He sighed, reading the homework assignment. Gibbs knew that it would have upset her. He put it away, zipping up the bag and joining his daughter down in the car where she was sitting happily. He wondered if it had actually affected her at all. After a couple of minutes in the car he brought it up.

"You got any homework?" He began, hoping he could pry it out of her with ease.

"No," Ziva replied airily. He wasn't sure he wouldn't have believed her if he didn't know. She was getting better at lying, unfortunately.

"Huh."

Ziva's eyes shot to meet his in the rear-view mirror. He knew. She was sure of it. He always knew. "Well, not really. It is just a little writing thingy."

"What is it?"

"I have to write about Israel...and my life there." She mumbled, looking out the window.

"What're you gonna write?"

"I don't know." She glanced in the mirror to meet his eyes. "What _can_ I write?"

"Whatever you want."

"But I can't." She snapped. "Ari was a terrorist and I don't have a brother. My sister died as a tiny little baby. Abba wasn't there. Ima died. Nobody told me where I was born. What can I write that won't get me sent back to Eli?"

"Ziva, nothing you can write will get you sent back to Eli." He reiterated. At this point he wasn't sure how many times he'd told her that.

"I could say that Ari and Tali were friends." She said then added quietly, "But it's not the same. And Ari was thirteen years older."

"You were born in Petah Tikva. Ari could have been a family friend." He helped. "Within certain realms you can make up whatever you want, not many people get the chance to do that."

The rest of the journey was mainly in silence until they pulled up outside Tony's flat. Gibbs picked up the two bags and opened the door for her, taking her hand as they walked through the car park. In the elevator she spoke.

"Ima's friend lived with us until a month before Ima and the baby died. Her friend had a daughter called Tali who shared my room. And Ari was a family friend of Ima's who came to stay with us sometimes." Ziva nodded as though she were convincing herself of the story. She looked up at him for confirmation. "Is that ok?"

He smiled back at her in confirmation and led her down the hallway to Tony's flat. Ziva knocked continuously until Tony swung open the door.

"You're gonna wake the neighbours, Zee." He sighed as he stepped aside to let the girl in.

"Why would they be sleeping? It's only six o'clock."

Gibbs passed the younger man her two bags. "School starts at nine, call if you need anything."-He gestured for Ziva to come back to him which she did as he bent down, wrapping his arms around her-"I'll get you after school tomorrow. Be good."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

"See you tomorrow, boss." Tony grinned. "Been missing those head slaps,"-at the look from Gibbs he corrected-"well...not so much but we have been missing you boss, especially Abby."

Gibbs matched his grin as he left the flat. Honestly, he'd been missing NCIS too and he really hoped that everything would go well. He'd said when they learned Ziva wouldn't be returning to her previous life that he would retire again if need be, but as much as he loved his daughter he missed his job. His job missed him too.

 **I can see Tony has been included in the story more than the rest of Team Gibbs but bear in mind that this is only the third chapter and everyone else will have their shots too. Can anyone suggest for me a way to directly incorporate McGee? I have trouble with him and I need some prompts.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and REVIEW...please.**


	4. Return to Work

**Thank you for all my beautiful reviews and PM's.**

"How long will the pizza be?" Ziva moaned.

It was now seven thirty and they had been waiting for the pizza to start their movie. Tony had chosen 'Bridge to Terabithia' for their movie night.

"Dunno but if it's longer than ten minutes it'll be free." Dinozzo sighed. He was hungry too and had been watching the clock for fifteen minutes with his hunger ever increasing. Only a few minutes later there was a knock at the door. "Finally! Set up the movie."

He went over to the door, riling himself up before he yanked the door open. At the other side was a teenage boy with their pizza.

"Took yah long enough." Tony said.

The delivery boy handed over the pizza. "That's $16 plus delivery, $19."

"No way, kid. If it takes more than an hour it's free." Tony corrected, taking the pizza in one hand.

"Come on man, it was only fifty five minutes. This'll come out of my paycheck." The kid complained.

"No way, if you guys make a clause like that, you gotta stick to it." He shrugged.

"Look, it's my girlfriend's birthday next week and she'll dump me if I can't afford to take her out somewhere nice." The delivery boy reasoned. "Help me out."

Tony softened slightly. "Ok, kid, but you owe me one."

He passed him a twenty, which the kid pocketed and walked off. Tony called after him about the dollar that was stolen from him before mumbling dejectedly back inside with the pizza. Ziva just shot him a look.

"You owe me that dollar." He shot, passing the pizza to the tot and dropping to the couch next to her.

"Sure, Tony. I'll write you a check." Ziva replied snarkily before sticking her tongue out and picking up a slice of pizza.

The movie went along as it usually did, mostly with Tony narrating with pieces of information here and there in between bites and Ziva's giggling with him. There was a respectful silence when Leslie died. By the time it was finished there was not only an empty pizza box but junk food wrappers littering his couch. Beside Ziva's cup was an empty Pepsi bottle.

"Right, shrimp. Help me clean this up." Tony told her before checking his watch. "Scrap that, have a shower, brush your teeth and get ready for bed. And don't tell your dad how late you went to bed."

She snatched the packet of sweets that was still half full before making her way to his bathroom. When she returned fifteen minutes later pyjama clad with her hair damp the mess had been mostly cleaned away and the couch made up for her to sleep.

"Can we watch another movie?" She asked. Despite the fact it was almost an hour past her bedtime she was still wide awake and unwilling to sleep.

"No, are you kidding? I've already got to get you to school on time tomorrow."

"I promise I'll get up."

"No, come on Ziva."

"You can't make me." She shot back as she walked over to his movie collection with her head held high.

Tony rolled his eyes, sighing dramatically as he looked to the ceiling in a 'God help me' kind of way. He already suspected getting her to school on time tomorrow was going to be a lot of work and making sure he got himself to work on time was going to be just as difficult. He didn't want to do it with her sleep deprived as well. He briefly considered giving her nytol however quickly thought better of it.

"You're dad won't be happy when I tell him about this tomorrow." Tony began. When she didn't respond he went over and knelt down beside her. "Level with me, Zee. Gibbs'll kill me, then you won't get to come round and I really like our movie nights."

She relented, rose and climbed back up on the couch, getting settled beneath the blankets Tony had pulled out for her. Once he got her settled he returned quietly to his own room where he could hopefully stay undisturbed until he was ready to go to bed himself. He pulled out his laptop and opened up Netflix to watch movies rated far too old for his young companion.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

The next morning had run relatively smoothly. Tony was five minutes late for work however Gibbs excused him, knowing how much of a handful Ziva could be to get out. Her old position was filled with a temp, the second since Ziva and Gibbs had left. Agent Brior however, was moving to LA in a few weeks and they'd be receiving another temp soon after. Hopefully within a few months things would settle down properly.

"Dinozzo, coffee." Gibbs announced, placing it on his senior agent's desk as he passed him to go down to Abby's lab.

"Um...thanks, boss." He shot a look at McGee who was looking equally as confused.

"Don't ask me."

"He's not been doing the whole nice thing again since this morning, has he?"

"Not that I could see."

He took a swig and swirled the liquid around his mouth before swallowing. Not poison, although it was still as dark as ever. _Not too nice then_. The phone sounded and he answered it within two rings. They had a case. _It never ends._

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

They ended up at the crime scene with a dead Petty officer discarded at the side of an alley with a knife wound to his gut. Ducky and Palmer were already at the scene-for once-and the rest of the group were just fileing out the car. Tony held his breath, he'd been in this situation before. Whenever he had been lead on the case and Gibbs took back over, he always tried to jump straight into telling people what to do. This time he decided to wait. He was right to.

"McGee, shoot and sketch, Dinozzo interview the witness." He paused at the third agent, a man in his early thirties.

"Agent Phillip Brior." He aided.

"Brior, look for the weapon."

Gibbs had a bad feeling about the new agent, even though he was temporary. He knew he didn't like any new agents, any that hadn't earned his trust so he let it slide. As soon as Ducky saw him coming over he stood.

"How'd he die?"

"If I were a betting man, I'd say this young fellow was stabbed." He said with a grin. "He died around four hours ago. ID says his name's Michael Cooper but his wallet's empty and he appears to be missing a watch and a wedding ring."

Gibbs nodded, finishing up the conversation when Palmer returned with the gurney. He went over to Tony as he appeared to be finished up with the witness.

"Amy Wells, been drinking underage in a club across the street and had passed out in a flat above, found the body and called 911. Her dad's coming to pick her up, don't think she'll be much use." Tony shared as he watched the barely seventeen year old slouched in a Police car.

Gibbs watched the man he presumed to be Well's father slam his car door and storm over to the police tape, glaring at the teenager that hadn't acknowledged him. He could just imagine what the man would be going through. He flipped back to the case and off of 'father mode'. The body was now being loaded into the van and he could see Brior pointing at something, McGee focusing a camera on it. Looks like they'd found their murder weapon.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

By lunch time they were sitting in the bullpen with a half formed case. McGee had found security footage covering the murder. Abby had then narrowed it down to a 6'3" white man of around thirteen stone. She'd admitted that hadn't really narrowed it down too far. However at twelve o'clock they'd made a minor break when a potential witness had responded to a police report. The witness, Brian Rivera, had just stepped through the elevator when Gibbs' cell started ringing.

"Gibbs," He responded.

"Hello, Mr Gibbs, we're calling in regards to your daughter, Ziva."

He stepped away from the bullpen, gesturing to the agent and the witness to wait. "She ok?"

"She got in a fight with another pupil." _Damn it, Ziva._ "She's alright but the other pupil is injured. We'd like you to come in for a meeting with the head teacher immediately. She won't be returning for afternoon lessons."

"Be there as soon as I can." He sighed, hanging up. Gibbs turned to McGee. "Tim, can you take the witness up to the conference room, that was the school."

"Everything ok?" McGee asked as Gibbs holstered his gun and picked up his coat.

"Fine, Tim."

 _Better be a good explanation for this._

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Gibbs was escorted up to the head teacher's office just up from the office. The receptionist knocked and pushed the door open before leaving them to it. There he saw Ziva sitting with her head bowed, her hands in her lap. Beside her was a boy of around seven or eight. All he could see from this position was a large red mark swelling around his eye. To the other side of the boy was his mother. The head shook Gibbs' hand and gestured for him to take a seat. From the lack of eye contact he could already guess Ziva was at least partially to blame.

"Mr Gibbs, my name is Mrs Williams. Ziva and Alex were caught by another teacher fighting out in the playground. This kind of behaviour is not tolerated here." She said sternly.

"She just attacked me." Alex snapped. "She came out of no-where."

"I did not!" Ziva snapped back, raising her voice. "He hit Aiden first."

She looked back at her father to see if she'd managed to elicit any support. Mrs Williams shuffled herself into a different position, one that commanded the room to return to her.

"The teacher that separated the fight said he heard an aggressive argument coming from a group of second graders." The Head told them. "Not long after that there was a group of children chanting 'fight' around these two."

"He was bullying Aiden and Michael!" Ziva burst angrily. "Alex and his friends. Michael says they're always like that."

"We were just having a laugh and then she attacked me." The boy defended, also looking to his parents to elicit support. Gibbs looked the pair over. The mother seemed to be disregarding everything Ziva was saying however the father met his eyes with a kind of understanding he knew. Rule 44. The boy's father was working on the same logic that that rule was based.

"That true, son?" The man asked in a gruff voice. He reminded Gibbs of his own dad.

"Dad, I swear she just came out of nowhere." He insisted. "She sucker punched me."

"That why that boy's mother was at our door last week saying you were teasing her kid?"

"Daniel, that's enough." The mother hushed.

He silenced her with a dismissive wave. "Thank you Ms Williams, but we'll be dealing with this at home,"-He turned to Gibbs-"I promise you he'll be punished for this."

Gibbs shook his hand. "I doubt Ziva's as innocent as she seems."

"Gotta teach my boy never to hit a girl." The couple vacated the room with the father's hand firmly on his son's shoulder.

Gibbs hit Ziva with a stern look. There was more to the story he wasn't getting yet. He could see that much written all over her face. Summing up her injuries all he could see was a minor scrape to the side of her face whereas Alex had left with a soon-to-be black eye, a burst lip and a limp.

"Your daughter won't be returning to class again today however she can return tomorrow but remember-" She fixed Ziva with a firm look, "this is her first and only warning. Next time Ziva will be facing a suspension."

They left the room with minimal pleasantries as Gibbs led his silent daughter out to the car. She got in, placing her school bag on the chair next to her and strapping herself in. He sat in the front and angled the rear view mirror so he could see her properly. Her head was hung low, sad curls drooping like a curtain and her fingers fiddling with the zip on her jacket.

"Ziver," He began. She made eye contact, barely. "Let's hear it."

"Am I in trouble?" She whispered.

"Yes, what you say next determines how much."

"Aiden said that Alex and his friends are mean to everyone and that he's in their class. They said he's really mean to them everyday. Alex and his friends were shouting things at them and when they tried to walk away David-that's Alex's friend-pushed them back into this cirlish thing. I pushed in and I told him to stop and then he did this big thing saying "do you know who I am?" and stuff. He pushed Aiden to the ground and then-" She paused, biting her lip.

"Then what?"

"Then...then he called me a Kike and said I shouldn't even be at that school." She admitted. "Then I hit him."

Gibbs exhaled as he watched his daughter through the mirror. He hated to think people still threw racist slurs like that and taught them to their children. He knew he couldn't be too hard on her. She was sticking up for a friend, he supposed.

"You can't hit people who upset you, Ziver." He told her. "Do you know that?"

She nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry you had to come back from work."

"I know you are."

They returned home in complete silence though his eyes kept on darting to the mirror to see her. As an adult she would have been angry, punching walls and shouting at people but now she just seemed dejected. Obviously, the angry Ziva was still there but as an adult she'd have held her attack unless necessary and fumed later whereas now she had attacked first. When they pulled up outside the house she didn't jump to her seatbelt, instead she waited almost ten seconds after they had parked before she reached for her bag and unclipped her seatbelt. Gibbs was already holding her door open for her. He ducked down to her level.

"Ziva, is there anything else you want to tell me?" He asked, hoping she'd give up the last piece of the puzzle.

She shook her head. Knowing he couldn't force it out of her he let them into the house. He reminded her she had homework to do and she took to her room to start it. He wasn't exactly sure how he was planning to punish her. She'd fought with another child and despite the fact that child was a bully and had just delivered a racial slur in her direction he wasn't sure he should let it slide. Especially when he was certain he was missing something.

Gibbs pulled out his phone and called Dinozzo for an update, needing to know if he should come in or not. The witness had put them on a lead which seemed hopeful for now. Everything was going well and he was assured he'd be called if he were needed. With that in mind he followed Ziva up to her room. Although the door was shut he could hear her through it whispering. He couldn't make out most of the words.

"I had to...do you think mama...they said it…" and that was about all he could pick up on.

Strained from listening, he knocked on the door gently before pushing it open. She was sitting at her desk with her homework out, her other chair pulled up beside her. She was definitely alone though and he couldn't work out who she was talking to. Awkwardly he tried to sit next to her but she stopped him.

"Don't sit there." She told him firmly, glaring at him as though he had insulted her very soul. Gibbs stood back up. "I want to be alone."

Understanding her need to mull over the events of the day, he left her to it. On his way out he distinctly heard her mumbling the phrase " _stemi ta'pe_ ". He paused, watching his daughter who hadn't looked up from the chair. He would almost have sworn she hadn't said it. Now certainly wasn't the time to discuss this with her. He'd have better luck in an hour or so.

 **I promise this isn't the end of this issue and it will be continued in the next chapter. I hope to update again on Saturday. As always REVIEW and thanks :)**


	5. Punishment and Imagination

**You may not agree with how Gibbs' handles Ziva's actions in this chapter however I get really angry when parents teach their kids violence is never the answer. Self defence is always appropriate _but..._ well you'll see. **

**Mhart (Guest) I love LOVE how you guessed where I was going with that. I hoped someone might.**

Rewriting her history had been a far more enjoyable task than she would have imagined. It really gave her a definite and cemented view of her life. Ziva had gone along the lines of what she had told Gibbs in the elevator. After introducing Tali as her friend's daughter who had lived with them since she was born she returned to calling her her sister. The main difference was that Tali was now less than a year younger rather than four years. Beside Tali's little paragraph was a drawing of them catching butterflies which had been Tali's favourite pastime.

"There aren't butterflies out right now." Ziva announced to the room. "We can catch them again when it's summer."

There were only a few sentences on Ari, stating that he had been a family friend who was attending university overseas. Tali's make-believe mother had been a work of gold, near perfect. She wished so could have met Nikina, rather than just inventing her. Though her birth certificate said Petah Tikva, she had taken the initiative to say they had moved out of the city when she was a baby and had moved to a small town where they had a large garden she and Tali had been able to play for hours in.

When it was finished she looked on proudly. The handwriting was too big and messy in places, one drawing glued on to cover up the first half of several words but she was pleased with it none the less.

She was aware that she shouldn't have hit Alex but she wasn't sure what else she could have done. What good would telling a teacher have done? Ziva was pretty sure there was one rule that was the same in every culture: nobody likes a grass. She was pretty sure that was the right word, she'd heard many people saying it. Besides, she had to stick up for Aiden and Michael. They were her friends.

Eventually she had slipped off her seat and meandered through the house silently. The only thing she could hear was her own heartbeat, not ever her own feet on the floorboards. At the bottom of the stairs she turned to peak round where Gibbs was sitting at the kitchen table. As his phone went off she pulled back. He had a tendency to look up for her before answering it incase she overheard. Whether he'd seen her or not he picked up. She listened into her half of the conversation with little to show for it. He barely said more than three words before hanging up.

"You can come out now, Ziva." Gibbs' voice sounded through.

Embarrassed, she entered the room and crawled onto the seat across from him where he watched her with a firm expression. Her eyes flickered away, unable to hold his gaze.

"Did you have a case?" She asked, daring to look back again.

Gibbs' face confirmed it and she went silent, watching her fingers as they fiddled with a loose thread on her sleeve. He continued watching his daughter for what felt like an eternity. He could see the upset written all across her as though she were a disappointment. If he were honest, he couldn't say he was completely against what she did. It was probably the unnecessary brute force he opposed of most. The boy looked like he was being abused with the black eye, that burst lip and a limp. No, he couldn't let his four year old away with that kind of damage.

"Ziva." Gibbs spoke but she didn't move. "Look at me."-Reluctantly she rose her head-"No matter what that kid did, that kind of assault cannot be tolerated. If someone did that to you-" He cut himself off and took a deep breath, "it's not acceptable, Ziva. The only time you hit someone is in self-defence."

"It was self-defence." She piped up. "Well...I was defending someone who could not defend themselves."

"It passed self defence at least five minutes before he looked like that." He let out another long breath. "I'll never punish you for defending yourself but that wasn't it. Not only that, I had to leave a case to come and get you."

"I'm sorry, daddy." She looked up at him with teary doe eyes that tugged on his heartstrings.

"Ugh, Ziva. I know you are." Gibbs said. "But you're not going to ballet tomorrow, you can start up next week, go back up to your room, you can stay up there until dinner."

She opened her mouth to argue but shut it again quickly as her eyes drooped. Slowly Ziva slunk back up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door behind her with a soft click. She loved her room, the bookcase provided endless hours of possibilities, the desk housed all avenues of creativity and the toy chest was like Aladdin's cave. Not only that but her crawl space was her own little hidey hole. But she didn't like feeling imprisoned there. Looking out her window she saw her trampoline and tire swing, both of which she would have loved to play on about now. She still hadn't won Gibbs round to the treehouse and came to the conclusion that now wasn't really the best time to bring that back up. Sadly, she crawled into her hidey hole, pulling the door shut and flicked on her fairy lights. Inside she had three books that were swapped out intermittently, a blanket and the plush toy Gibbs had got her at the zoo.

"Do you think he'll forgive me?" Ziva mumbled, glancing up into the eyes of her sister who nodded on convincingly. "I would have done the same for you too."

" _You always protected me_ ," Tali insisted.

She could see the three year old coming forward and cuddling into her, could feel her playing with her hair. This was her little sister and she couldn't leave her behind in Israel, even if her homework exercise said she had.

" _Read to me_."

Ziva reached forward and took out the bottom book, Greek Mythology. Their mother had told them it when they were children and after she had died, Ziva continued to tell it to Tali, all of the stories she could remember. Remembering she had mentioned it before, McGee had bought it in a shop upon passing.

She read aloud to her about Bellerophon who had to kill the Chimaera unfairly and then when he succeeded had to fight the Amazons and then heroically destroyed an entire army. Of course he was rewarded with half a kingdom, a wife and four children but his arrogance was his downfall and in his attempt to reach Olympus he became crippled. They wondered at the magnificent pictures through the story and by the end of it Tali had made her smile.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Meanwhile Gibbs was down in the basement. They were coming ever closer to Ziva's birthday and while he didn't want to spoil her he wanted her birthday to be special. He'd never known her to celebrate her birthday much but he wanted things to be different now. Abby was already going overboard with presents. As it happened he knew she had at least three things waiting to be delivered and one that he'd caught a glimpse of the other day. He'd had a talk with her but if anything he felt that had got her even more excited.

Personally he was working on a small music box. With the help of a few well placed sources and favours he had managed to acquire a wind up device he could secure into it that played a Jewish lullaby'. It had taken a lot of work to get but he was sure it would be worth it. He still had to find the opportunity to buy some nice paints that would match her room. Other than that he just had to attach the lid.

The comfortable silence of his basement was invaded by the sound of his phone. He placed the half made music box back on the bench before pulling out the cell and squinting at the name. He answered.

"We got a confession, boss." McGee informed him. "Ended up with one witness that saw the suspect leave the scene and another that spotted him a few blocks down with blood on him. Two positive ID's and some security footage. He eventually confessed for a deal."

"That's good work, Tim." Gibbs told him.

"How's Ziva?"

"Beat up another pupil."

"Is she ok?" McGee spat out then immediately rambled, "Well of course she's ok, she's Ziva, I mean was she suspended?"

"No, just sent home." Gibbs said. "Tell Abby not to come round tonight, we'll re-arrange."

"Will do, Boss. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

He then hung up. At least he hoped he'd be in tomorrow, and for the full day as well. This case at least had been easy enough but he knew-God, he knew-that not all cases were and if Ziva was playing up he wasn't sure how he planned to juggle both his work and daughter. Anyone he trusted with her that lived close enough were working with him. The first few weeks being back at work were bound to be rocky, he just hoped that they would get on an even keel soon enough. With that in mind he knew just who could help them get along. Pulling his phone back out, he dialed one number he knew he could count on.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Tali always had the best suggestions for games, Ziva mused. At any age she could keep one occupied for hours upon hours, which was what made her the best sister in the world. They (Ziva) had removed the comforter, tucking the shorter end into the bed and the other shorter end was stretched up to the top of the window. She had had to close it over the blanket to secure it but with a lot of effort it had worked. Her chest of drawers (which had wheels on the bottom) were pushed into the opening of the fort. Inside was reasonably roomy with all of her pillows and stuffed animals spread out inside. Tali had also suggested they bring the fairy lights into it from her crawl space but she had refused. Ziva had even managed to fish out her torch which lit up their little fort.

" _Warrior Zia, the monsters are invading the kingdom_!" Tali called dramatically, her words slurring in places with excitement. "What do we do?"

"Don't worry Princess, stay in the castle!" Ziva said, grabbing the samurai sword she had used for halloween and charging out.

It had always been their favourite game. Before Ziva had become obsessed with training for Mosaad, before their mother died, their room had been the kingdom and Ziva had been the warrior there to protect them. Of course the Princess would flee the castle and aid in the battle but they had to play their little charade first. Ziva pulled out of their fort castle and onto the bed where she leapt off in a triumphant yell and came crashing down, the sword swinging over her head. She then proceeded to sweep the army with her attacks however

was overcome when she fell to the floor. At this point Tali stepped out from the fort.

"No, princess!" The child yelled. "I promised the king I would protect-"

She was cut off when Gibbs flung open the door and sent a death glare at the flailing child on the floor. She sat up, looking shamefully up at her father.

"This is a punishment, Ziva. Not a reward." He told her sternly after what had felt like an eternity.

"I know, it's just-"

"No, Ziva. When I sent you to your room it means you're quiet. You either go to bed or read." Gibbs continued as he tried to keep the growl out of his voice. "When I come back the fort better be gone."

The door closed behind him with a slight slam. In anger, she turned back to the fort and ripped it down. Tali stood back in silence as Ziva threw the comforter back on the bed and returned the cushions back to their rightful places. Grabbing a random book of the shelf, she dropped back to her bed in a furious silence.

" _Your new Abba is mean_." Tali whispered.

"Shut up, Tali." Ziva hissed, turning her entire body away. "You are not even real."

In her own anger, Tali disappeared. _She will be back_ , Ziva assured herself though she continued to stare at the open book that she would not read so much as a word of.

 **As always, thanks and REVIEW.**


	6. The Case and The Mistake

**Ok...I admit...the middle part may not make a lot of sense. As much as I enjoy NCIS I am not** ** _entirely_** **certain what they do except for investing the deaths of Navy officers. If anyone would like to enlighten me via PM that would be very helpful.**

 **Sorry this took so long but I couldn't find a way to link two halves of this chapter together so it's not quite as I would have liked it to be.**

The following day Ziva had been reluctant getting ready however he had challenged it with a strict no-nonsense attitude after the previous day. Knowing that she felt guilty (despite being covered well with anger) he knew it would get along well enough. Gibbs hadn't told her yesterday's case had been resolved and he was sure to home in on that.

"Ziva! If you're not down these stairs in five minutes-" He yelled despite not having any suitable punishment on his mind to dole out. They both knew, however, that he could always find one with relative ease.

He chugged the last of his coffee before dropping the mug in the sink. _Not as good as Starbucks_. It was an unfortunate sacrifice he had had to make-couldn't always be store bought. When he heard Ziva stomping down the stairs with as much noise as a four year old could possibly muster, he moved swiftly to the front door, pulling it open before she even reached the bottom. She snatched her bag from beside the door and left, making sure he was well aware of her bad mood. The problem was, he was in one too. Slamming the door, he locked it then proceeded to follow her into the car. Before starting it he took a deep breath. They were too similar sometimes, he mused. Gibbs opened his eyes and fixed them on Ziva through the rear view mirror. Glowering was what she did best. With his anger effectively renewed, Gibbs started up the car.

Ziva was whispering away in the back seat in Hebrew which irritated him to no end. He would never tell her she couldn't speak her native language in his presence for that would be cruel and unnecessary, however when he didn't know what she was saying and she was mad at him he couldn't shake the feeling she was being cheeky and he couldn't challenge it.

"Enough." He snapped, his bad mood getting the better of him.

And she fixed him with a look of such distaste that was unmatched by the majority of suspects they dragged in. They were in a rush, however, and she did stop speaking so he let it go. Ziva was still reeling from yesterday and so was he. If he could make it through the rest of the day without either of them literally killing someone he would think it a plus.

They stopped outside the school, Ziva immediately jumping to fly out the car however he remained in his seat. She met his eyes in the mirror, firm and hard and angry, expecting him to open the child-lock door.

"I cannot get out." Ziva said in a raised voice. When he didn't respond she shouted "let me out!" before proceeding to kick the door.

"Stop." He commanded as he turned and grabbed her legs, holding them firm so she could not continue to scuff his car. "That's enough, Ziver, that's enough."

Kindly, his own anger beginning to dissipate, he brushed a lock of hair being her ear. Gibbs could tell her eyes softened slightly however her resolve refused to break and she held her body in the same tense anger she had before. He almost said something however thought better of it and turned back to the front to exit the car. Gibbs pulled her door open. As she left the car he surveyed the car park. His eyes caught Miss Lannert-Ziva's teacher-coming towards them with a sympathetic smile.

"Good morning Ziva, Mr Gibbs." She greeted. He met it with a nod. "Ziva, you'll be staying in class during break and lunch with me today, is that ok?"

When she refused to respond or meet her teacher's eye Gibbs prompted her. "Ziva."

"Yes." She spat, her arms crossed and her gaze firmly away from the conversation.

"Right, well, I'll let you get on." Miss Lannert said.

Gibbs watched them leave the scene as he exhaled. It wasn't even nine o'clock and he was already done for the day.

After stopping for coffee and getting into work he was fifteen minutes late and although no-one questioned it to him he saw the hens quit clucking immediately as he exited the elevator. His patience-after stretching as far as it possibly could for his daughter-would not stretch any further for the rest of his family. Fortunately, Tony and McGee seemed to pick up on that and went straight back to their desks to work on their stacks of paperwork. His impenetrable glare was almost begging them to provoke him but they knew better and didn't. Agent Brior on the other hand, did not. Then again, he wasn't there either.

"Where the hell's Brior?" Gibbs snapped.

McGee and Dinozzo exchanged looks however Tony was the one to answer-eventually. "Erm...we're not sure, thought he'd be in. Must be running late."

Gibbs slammed his drawer where he'd just placed his gun and badge before dropping the coffee to-go-cup in the bin and stalking off. The day was not going well.

"I would not want to be Brior right now." Tony said.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Miss Lannert looked up from one of the maths test she was grading from the Circle group to see Ziva with her head in her hand reading a book. It was lunch and they could hear the shouts of children from just outside the window almost mocking her. Despite the fact she knew this was a punishment she couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. Two things had stopped her from arguing about the continuation of her punishment: the first being that Ziva had started a fight and it could not be seen to be tolerated but the second was she was genuinely concerned about Ziva if she went out there. She was just a little girl-despite the injuries she had caused-and there were a lot of older pupils she had upset the previous day. She had to wait for things to calm down and blow over. All the same, the young teacher had vowed to keep a firmer eye on Ziva when she was out in the playground. She was special and by God she knew how people could destroy that sort of spark in a child.

Hesitantly, she spoke. "Ziva. I know you're upset and I understand that. Things will settle down here after a while. Lewis raves about how clever you are. He said he's going to start you learning Chinese. You'll be amazed at the amount of doors open to you when you grow up with your linguistic skills."-When Ziva didn't negatively respond, Miss Lannert came over to her and pulled up the nearest chair-"Despite what you did, I'm very proud you stood up for your friends-but don't tell anybody."-Ziva met her eyes and smiled slightly-"Don't confuse that with it being ok to hit people...Names can hurt sometimes, huh?"

Ziva's eyes dropped back to the desk. Sadly, she scratched into the wood on the desk with her fingernail. She didn't speak.

"What Alex said to you was very bad. I'm sorry we let that happen." Alice said quietly. "Will you tell me if anyone says anything bad to you like that again?"

Ziva paused before nodding with certainty. She would, she decided, at least once. If her teacher let her down then, well Ziva could always resort to her own means again. Another teacher knocked on the door and she was forced to excuse herself, telling Ziva she'd be back in a few minutes. As soon as she was out of the classroom there was a tapping at the window. When Ziva looked up she saw Aiden and Michael with their faces pressed up against it. Michael gestured for her to open it. With a look to the door, she went over however it took all her strength to open it a mere inch.

"Alex isn't in today." Aiden rushed excitedly. "And I heard his friend saying that he wasn't going to be in next week either!"

"And nobody was mean to us at all today!" Michael chimed in. "That was awesome, Zee!"

"Here." Aiden said as he pushed through a half eaten chocolate bar. "I was gonna give you it all but I kinda got hungry. Sorry."

"Thank you."

Under threat of being seen, the boys retreated from the window and Ziva managed to force it shut. She grinned like the Cheshire Cat as she returned to her seat with the chocolate stashed safely in her bag. Knowing that her friends were safe meant that she would be happy to take any punishment.

" _Mama says hitting people is not nice._ " Tali said matter of factly as she pulled up a chair.

"But they aren't nice either." Ziva shot back, grin never fading.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

The day had been exceptionally slow which hadn't helped to alleviate Gibbs' frustrations. He'd delivered an unnecessarily hard head slap to Dinozzo when he'd started shooting spitballs at McGee. Even McGee didn't grin in his direction when he heard the loud 'whack'. Honestly, he was concerned his annoying friend may have lost more than a few braincells. He did have to laugh when he saw Abby immediately turn tail back to her lab. Apparently she didn't have much to do either.

Things had started to pick up later ever so slightly when there was a disturbance on a naval base. Usually NCIS wouldn't even have sent someone round to deal with it however he was desperate to get out of the office. He considered bringing Dinozzo along as he was virtually useless in the office however-for the sake of his own sanity-he called McGee over. He didn't miss the look of sheer smugness sent to Tony.

"Why are we investigating this?" Tim asked as they entered the elevator.

"Yah can stay and do paperwork if you want." Gibbs replied with a grin. Tim immediately quietened.

Gibbs had expected it to be be a pointless drive that would overall take them out of the office for perhaps an hour and a half. They were pleasantly surprised when they discovered their services were wanted though perhaps not totally necessary. A large package of illicit drugs had been discovered being smuggled in and distributed among a small group of officers. Gibbs had a friend who was high up on the base and now he owed him a favour for saving him from the office. It only took them a short amount of time to find a slightly more pressing matter that really did require their attention. Finding a bug in their conference room on base, they immediately set to work. While their computer skills were adequate at best, they were able to set McGee up with some devices that would hopefully mean he didn't need to take himself all the way back to NCIS. Meanwhile, Gibbs made the call back to get the rest of them on it. He couldn't help but grin at the relief in Tony's voice. The time ticked on and they were getting on in the 'case' reasonably well. The drugs had actually been tied in-however loosely-and he was almost convinced they would find the distributor before the close of day.

"Hey boss," Tim began, looking up from the clock on his phone. "Shouldn't you have picked Ziva up from school an hour ago?"

Gibbs suddenly jerked, looking down at his watch. 16:03. _Damn it._ Pulling out his phone, he found four missed calls from the school. He had no idea how he could have missed them. _Damn phone acting up again_. He abandoned McGee at the military base as he jogged out to the car, dialling the number to the school. When they picked up he was connected through to Miss Lannert.

"Don't worry about it." She told him. "It's just lucky for Ziva that I run an afterschool club on a Friday. She's been here with a group of children. They're just packing up now, how long will you be?"

"Half hour."

"Right." She said, reserved. "I won't be here but there's a lady in the office that usually doesn't leave for another twenty minutes. I'm sure she can sit with her."

They hung up. God, he'd screwed up. He briefly considered calling Abby to get her however all in all she'd probably take longer to get there than he would. When he said he'd go back to work he somehow expected the first week to go slightly smoother than this. In the end he was earlier than he'd expected to be but he'd blown a red light on the way. _An hour. How'd you forget your daughter for an hour?_ At the front door he'd had to buzz in as they were shut up and the doors were locked. An aging woman far passed retirement age came to the door with Ziva and clicked a button to open them.

"I'll presume you're Mr Gibbs." She said, directing Ziva out the door. "We were just wondering how it took you so long to get here."

"On a case." He told her as he took Ziva's hand and excused them.

She didn't say a word the entire way to the car, even when she got in she sat down and stared firmly ahead. He deliberated over what he was going to say to her for quite a while before starting.

"What was the club?" He asked.

"Arts and crafts." Ziva mumbled non-committedly.

"Ah." He put the key in the car and started it up. "Ziva, I was on a case and didn't realise how late it was. It shouldn't've happened."

She didn't reply and after the way they had left things that morning he felt he'd let her down significantly. Ziva could hold a grudge, he was aware of that from both her current self and her adult self. The only thing that eased his feeling of guilt was that-at the very least-he couldn't do any worse than Eli had done. They turned down their street and Gibbs heard the familiar click of a seat belt being undone. He stopped the car.

"Ziva, put your seatbelt back on. Now." Gibbs said with no room for argument as he met her eyes in the rearview mirror. She didn't reply. "Being angry does not give you any right to endanger your life. Put on the seat belt now."-When she still didn't reply he added-"If I have to get out of this car to put your belt back on your bottom is gonna be sore."

Before either of them could do anything a car honked behind them. They'd stopped in the middle of the road and he was forced to pull into the side before continuing with her.

"I know you're angry but _this_ ," He gestured for their current situation, "is not acceptable."

He could even see their house. If she'd waited three minutes they'd be inside by now. For the first shaky moment in a long time, he realised he might be out of his depth. Ziva continued to stare him down in the mirror with hardened eyes and he tried to match them with a firm but kind stare. He had the brief idea to tell her to get out of the car and walk down the street but if he did that he was one hundred percent certain she'd turn around and walk the other way. With frustration, he stepped out of the car, opened the back door and clipped the seat belt back into place as he hit her with a very angry glare. He got back in the car and had driven a total of about three feet before he heard the click of the seat belt again. This time he drove up to the house without a word. Gibbs stepped out fuming. The back door was opened and Ziva began to climb out. He grabbed her arm to steady her and slapped her bottom with a hard whack before helping her jump down to the ground.

"Sit in the living room, we're gonna talk." Gibbs said gravely.

While she disappeared into the house he grabbed her school bag and slammed the door, leaning against it and letting out a long, frustrated breath. He couldn't believe he had forgotten her. All of this 'single parent' business was giving him a newfound respect for Shannon when he had been away. It was a lot harder than he had ever given her credit for and she had been working part time-for real, not whatever he was pretending to do. Gibbs followed her into the house, pulling the key he'd passed back to her out of the lock. She was sitting obediently on the couch which assured him he hadn't spanked her too hard. Sitting down across from her he tried to open the conversation.

"I told you I'd change the seat belt if you did that again and I will." He'd expected her to argue but she didn't even look up. A thought suddenly clicked for him. "Ziva, what did you think when I didn't pick you up?"-she shrugged her shoulders-"did you think something'd happened to me?"

She nodded slowly at first but then faster and with more conviction. God, he'd definitely screwed up. He could just imagine how worried she'd been, especially after she'd gotten so upset the first time he'd gone on a case after she'd regressed.

"I haven't handled this week well." Gibbs admitted. This caused her to meet his eye. "So I called my dad to come and stay for a bit until we get a bit more settled."

"D-does he know about me?"

"No, but he'll understand and he'll help us out." He assured her. "Should be here tomorrow."

He opened his arms and she crawled into them. Although he hated it to be under the circumstances, he was glad Ziva seemed to finally have let go of her anger towards him. Maybe it was admitting he was wrong-even if it wasn't about what she'd been upset with, which had been last night-but just admitting that he wasn't infallible might have done the trick. Either way, he hoped the arrival of his father was enough to steady them while he found his feet back in the world of work.

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	7. Grandpa

**As you can see this is a very short chapter but I've been deliberating since mid-October about how to lengthen it. I don't really know how to but here Jackson Gibbs is.**

 **Happy New Year, I hope you've all had a good couple of weeks :)**

Gibbs watched Ziva out the window as he dried a glass. She was bouncing about on the trampoline and shouting with joy while engrossed in some imaginary game. He couldn't help but chuckle as she lost her footing and fell. When she fell again trying to get up he laughed louder and had to step away from the window in fear she'd hear him. His dad was arriving soon-God knew they needed him-and he just hoped things would go well. Gibbs had told the man about Ziva briefly, only so much that he knew to expect the young child, and planned to elaborate at the first chance he got. Hearing a car pull up outside the house, Gibbs went to the door to see his father walking up the drive.

"Hey dad." He greeted.

"Hey, son. Where's the granddaughter you've been telling me about?" Jackson asked with a grin as he reached the front door.

"In the garden but we should talk first." Gibbs stood aside to let the older man in. "You didn't have to drive all the way here."

"How am I supposed to treat her without a car?" He shot back. "It's Ziva isn't it? Same name as the woman you work with?"

The two Gibbs' sat down and proceeded to have a long difficult talk that Jethro knew would be difficult to swallow. He tried to judge his father's expression as he went on explaining what had happened over the past several months. He'd considered not telling him, instead just saying she was a girl he had adopted after a difficult case however he chose to be honest for two reasons. The first was that it might be slightly difficult to believe (despite the fact the truth would be harder) but the second was that he didn't want to lie to him and he wanted Ziva to be able to be honest too. As Gibbs finished his long winded tale he waited for the older man to say something. Before he could react, Ziva stepped into the room. Gibbs opened his arm to her so that-no matter what happened-she'd have someone with her. But his father's face broke out into such a large grin he was almost taken aback.

"Well hello, little lady." He beamed. "I bought you something on my way down."

Jackson then reached down into his bag and pulled something out wrapped in some tissue paper and string-something he'd obviously wrapped quickly and with very little to do it with. Tentatively, she stepped forward and took it from his outstretched hand. Ziva opened it slowly to reveal a large, thick book with a stunning illustration on the front with the title made up of foil letters. She opened the book at the first page and a pop out opened up. It took over the whole page in the most enchanting way, the story scripted around the stunning dragon creature. The book was absolutely ethereal and both men could see her face light up with fascination.

"Thank you," she breathed in delight.

"I'm Jack, d'you remember me?" He asked with a smile. While she knew she had met Jack before she couldn't actually remember it. She was getting more and more like that. Ziva shook her head. "That's all right. You can call me Grandpa, if you'd like."

She grinned back at him as all the answer he needed. His little granddaughter was the most adorable little girl he'd ever seen with her wild dark curls and large doe eyes. He could hug the life out of her but he held himself back. The last thing he wanted was to scare the little mite away, more so with her history.

"So Leroy, where'm I sleeping tonight?" Jack asked. He would be happy with the couch but he wasn't sure his back was up for it anymore.

Before Gibbs could answer Ziva jumped in. "You can stay in my bed and I can sleep with Daddy because he gets a sore back if he sleeps on the couch."

Jackson chuckled. Like father like son, or perhaps it was just old age. "Coffee?"

Gibbs got up and went over to the coffee machine while Jack patted the seat next to him and Ziva crawled up. Though he couldn't hear what was being said the welcoming arm around Ziva's shoulders was enough for him to know the pair were getting along just as he knew they would. He really hoped his dad being there would be enough to help them out despite the visits temporary nature. When he returned with the coffee, placing it on front of the older man Ziva burst into giggles.

"Just telling your Ziva about the time you and your friends tried to sneak into the mines and you fell 'n twisted your ankle." He recalled with a smile. "Limped home with two boys holding you up."

"Wasn't a good idea, mines could've collapsed." Gibbs said, keen to show Ziva that not all ideas children have are good ones. "Should've listened to yah."

Ziva narrowed her eyes at her father, well aware of the point he was trying to get across. She stuck her tongue out at him. Suddenly an idea crossed her mind but she decided to hold onto it until her father was away, preferably on a case. Of course, she would need to suck up to her grandpa but that was easily do-able.

"Can I go back into the garden?" Ziva asked as she pushed herself up. When Gibbs nodded, she left.

"She's a beautiful little girl." Jackson commented as he took a swig of his coffee. "Though she's mischievous, isn't she?"

Chuckling, he agreed. "Definitely. I'll need you to pick her up from school while I'm at work. I'm supposed to be back by then but…"

He let it hang, knowing his father was there for the specific purpose that he wasn't meeting only his part time hours. He'd either need to stick to his hours or find a childminder to watch her after school. Hopefully, things would improve from now on.

 **Thanks, I'll do my best to update better from now on. REVIEW.**


	8. Breakfast in Bed

**I found somewhere online that Gibbs' birthday was presumably the 10th of November. Whether or not that's true, in this story it is. Enjoy.**

Jackson had found Ziva's bed very comfortable to sleep in. The duvet was thick and comforting and the pillows were similar to that of a nice hotel. The only thing he hadn't liked was the pairs of eyes from stuffed toys staring at him. He was an only child and he'd only had Jethro and neither of the pair had ever had much of a love for the toys. Once when Kelly had stayed at his for the night she had climbed into his bed and he had awoken with a tatty teddy staring him down. He'd been given quite a shock at the time. That morning he had awoken with the same shock. Ziva was standing only millimetres from his face with her head cocked. She was staring at him. Just staring. He jumped and clutched his chest in fright.

"Ziva, what're you trying to do to me?" She didn't display any remorse or shock that he had jumped so suddenly. It was almost as though she had expected it, which although he wouldn't verbally admit it, scared him a little. "What time is it?"

"It's daddy's birthday today." She said without answering the question.

Jack mentally did a tally before replying, "Yes, yes it is."

"I want to make him breakfast in bed but I'm not allowed to touch the stove unsupervised and I don't want to make him mad today." Ziva smiled at him. "Can you come and be my 'adult' supervision?"

He looked over at the clock and decided, though it was still rather early, that he couldn't say no to the little darling on front of him. "If you just let me get ready, I'll be down in fifteen minutes."

She nodded and left the room without another word. Jackson watched her leave and then looked around the room. She had managed to come in and get fully changed without a single noise that could wake him up. He was far from a light sleeper as well. He'd have to keep a close eye on her, he was sure.

When he entered the kitchen almost exactly fifteen minutes later Ziva was sitting on a chair waiting very patiently for his arrival. There was a jug full of pancake batter standing prepped for cooking. Along with the generous display of love from a child for her father's birthday came a great big serving of mess. She was a good deal shorter than the countertops and he could imagine the child pulling a chair back and forth to even reach up.

"How do you think your daddy's going to feel when he sees this mess?" Jackson asked with a smirk as he made his way over to grease the pan. He helped her up onto the chair so she could flip the pancakes properly. Quickly, he added. "Mind you don't burn yourself."

"Erm…" She mumbled as she managed to pour a fair dollop of mixture. "I think he will appreciate the gesture."

Ziva chewed her bottom lip absently as he gazed around at the site. She really hadn't realised as she was making the batter. A lot of flour had been dropped and some milk had spilled over the floor-which was why she had changed out of her pyjamas. She glanced over to where the batter was dripping down the side, a mess she had just added to trying to make that first pancake.

"Would you like me to clean this up while you make those?"

Ziva beamed at him. "Yes please."

"Just this once."

"Just this once."

So while she made the first batch of pancakes, 'Grandpa' Jack diligently cleaned up the mess of his charge who was just trying to make her daddy's birthday special. He left the area where the batter was dripping down for the simple reason that she kept on spilling more. Instead, he placed a towel down in the splash zone to lessen the cleaning later. He opened the fridge and pulled out the bacon.

"I know your daddy loves bacon. And some eggs wouldn't go amiss." Jack hinted very subtly.

"You can make the bacon and I'll put on the eggs." Ziva smiled. She liked that how he treated her. She was very certain she could warm to her new grandfather exceptionally quickly and was glad he was there.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Gibbs had woken up without the tiny shape of his daughter and instinctively knew she would be investigating the extra person in their house who she just happened to offer up her bed to. Even at the time he'd known she would use that as an excuse to bother Jack. She would _need_ something from her room and she would need it _now_. He wasn't the least bit surprised when he discovered that Jack wasn't sleeping and Ziva's pyjamas had been discarded by her dresser. Quietly, he crept down the stairs as he noticed the smell of pancakes and bacon. It immediately got his stomach growling.

"You can't have any until we take it up to daddy!" He heard Ziva scold.

Without a sound, he turned and slipped back to his bedroom as to not ruin the surprise. He just hopped Ziva had the ability to foresee his desire for coffee along with his breakfast.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Jack pulled out a wooden tray and loaded on the freshly made pancakes, the huge plate of bacon and the eggs as well as the cup of coffee and some juice for Ziva. He double checked to make sure she'd turned off the stove properly before helping her step down from the chair.

"You coming, little miss?" He asked with a grin before picking up the tray.

"I want to carry it!" Ziva cried, stepping on front of him with her eyes narrowed in disbelief that he would take it from her.

There was absolutely no way that that little mite would manage to carry all of that from the kitchen to the living room, into the hall and up the stairs and then right along to the end of the hall to her father's bedroom. Absolutely no way. But he also knew there was no way she would accept that.

"How about I take this to the door and you can carry his coffee?" He asked, praying it was enough of a compromise.

She crossed her arms and pouted out her lips stubbornly. "It was my idea and I want to carry it."

There was no way to appease that betrayed look in her eyes that _he_ would appear to be taking credit for _her_ idea. "Have you got a card for him?"-she nodded-"Go and get it and I'll meet you at the door."

Still not having it, she didn't move so much as an inch. "Ziva, this food's going be cold by the time we get this to him. Will you just take the coffee? I'm not even sure I can carry it up those stairs."

She relented but did not seem even slightly pleased with the outcome. Taking the coffee from the tray, she took tiny steps all the way to his door to stop it from spilling over. When they arrived Ziva knocked twice.

In a forced-groggy state, Gibbs called back, "yeah, come in."

"No. You need to open it." Ziva called back in a frustrated voice as she struggle with the single cup of coffee. "I-we-cannot."

Gibbs swung open the door and wanted to laugh as he took the coffee off of Ziva and patted his father's shoulder.

"Happy birthday, daddy!" Ziva grinned. "I made it all myself _and_ I told Grandpa so that I wouldn't burn myself on the stove."

Gibbs smile widened as he placed the coffee cup on the bedside table and welcomed Ziva

for a hug. "I'm very proud of you for that."

Jack placed the tray on Gibbs' bed before dishing out his own breakfast onto one of the three plates and making his way to the door.

"Dad, you not staying?" Jethro asked.

"No, son. I prefer to eat my meals at a table with my paper." He smiled back. "Happy birthday."

Truth be told, he prefered his meals in a similar style however he couldn't squash the nice thing his little girl had done for him. He smiled at her and kissed her forehead.

"Thanks, sweetpea."

 **The next chapter is unwritten and any ideas for Gibbs' birthday will be considered :) As always, thanks and REVIEW.**


	9. Unwanted Birthdays

**Sorry for how long this has taken to get up, especially considering the quality of this one. I've had a dissertation, two assignments and a presentation to prepare for so this fanfic kind of took back bench for a while.**

 **Please review this one as I'm really not sure how it went. Thanks.**

Once the dishes were cleared Gibbs was safe to read his paper down the stairs without hurting his daughter's feelings. He was propped up on the couch with it while his father finished off his own beside him. It was all relative bliss for the exception he could see Ziva out of the corner of his eye pulling on rope that stretched from the top of the stairs to the bottom. He put down his paper for a moment to observe. She then tied the rope tightly to her belt before turning to her right and doing the same with what seemed to be an imaginary one. She stood straight and saluted to the entity.

"Ziver, what're you doing?" He asked, genuinely intrigued now.

"I am about to climb Mount Hermon. It will be a great victory for my people." She said in such a serious tone he fought back the urge to smirk.

"Uh huh," Gibbs nodded. "Just, try not to break something."

He returned to his paper while Ziva climbed the stairs in an almost horizontal fashion, her hands gripping onto the rope in desperation. He could lightly hear her talking as she played her game but he decided she was not in any danger-for now. He perked up his interests again when he heard her shout a bloodcurdling "No!" from what he assumed was halfway down the steps. This time, even Jackson looked up. Gibbs turned to him and lightly shook his head to tell him not to question it.

Ziva however, was in the midsts of her game and was now genuinely wrapped up in it. Now, so close to the top, Tali had slipped in the snow and was now dangling off a cliff. Sure, her harness was on but it had been broken in the fall. Laying flat over three stairs and clutching the rope with one hand to steady herself, she reached forwards to grab her sister's hand. When she secured it she pulled quickly and straightened herself up on one of the stairs. She wrapped her arms around her baby sister in relief.

"You could have died!" She scolded. "We are _so_ close!"

And from there they continued their ascent, getting ever closer to the peak. Now, Ziva had never actually climbed Mount Hermon but that wasn't necessary information for their game. When they reached the top they cheered. They had done it, despite all odds! They both beamed from the peak as they surveyed the area around them. Despite their great success it seemed a snowstorm was going to devastate the mission! The sisters undid their harnesses and sought refuge behind a large rock formation (which in actuality was a collection of pillows taken from both Ziva and Gibbs' rooms.

"Maybe we shouldn't have done this in Winter." Ziva suggested, having to shout over the sound of the wind.

" _No! Winter is the best time to see the Northern Lights!_ " Tali insisted.

Ziva pouted her lips as she thought over that blaringly incorrect logic however decided to overlook it. When they scaled Mount Everest, borrowing kangaroos to make it up the last hundred meters had not made a lot of sense either.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Abby had been excited when the date circled on her calender had finally come: the great Gibbs' birthday. She was even more excited when she had heard that Jack was in town for a while. She couldn't wait to see the two Gibbs'. She knocked only once before trying the door and finding it unlocked. When she entered Gibbs was preparing lunch and Jack was watching TV. Jack saw Abby enter and stood to welcome her in.

"Hey, Jack." Abby beamed as she gave him a hug. She then added very pointedly in Gibbs' direction, "how come I had to hear from Tony that you were in town?"

"My bad, Abs." Gibbs said as way of an apology. "Staying for lunch?"

Abby nodded before poking her head up the stairs. "Hey, Ziva."-When she didn't get a reply she turned back to Jackson-"Why's Ziva not talking to me?"

"Climbing Machu Picchu...no...I think it was a mountain." Jackson stopped a minute. "Erm...Mount Foraker or...something in the middle East maybe."

Abby gestured that it was no big deal. She stepped forward with a large circle tupperware box and placed it on the island counter. When the lid was pulled off it revealed a large sponge cake with jam and vanilla butter icing laced generously on top.

"Happy birthday, Gibb-so." Abby smiled cheekily. "I was going to get candles but then I realised there wasn't enough room on top to reach one hundred."

"Hey, if my son's a hundred, what does that make me?" Jackson quipped before Gibbs could even react.

"Stunningly handsome for your old age." Abby shot before popping her head back round the stairs. When she saw that Ziva was still otherwise occupied she returned and whispered to Gibbs, "I have her birthday presents in the car."

"You better not have gone overboard." Gibbs muttered quietly.

"Of course not but you only get one fifth birthday-" Abby paused a moment, "-or two, in Ziva's case."

"Lunch's almost ready, get Ziva to wash up."

Abby disappeared up the stairs while Jackson sat down at the table. Gibbs dished out four plates and served them as well as drinks; two coffees: black, one Redbull and one cranberry juice. Abby sat down across from him while Ziva stomped in seemingly less than impressed.

"We were about to go to the _moon_." She sighed while she scrambled up onto the chair next to him.

"Thought it was Mount Hermon."

"It _was_ but there was a rocket at the top." Ziva said very seriously as though she couldn't believe her father wouldn't know that. "It is a good job Tali found it because that snowstorm would have killed us."

"Hey, Ziva, I found a shop in town that sells ballet stuff. I can take you in tomorrow if you want?" Abby asked in between mouthfuls.

She nodded before plopping her own forkful in and then proceeded to speak around the food. "Wha're we doo-ng to-ay?"

"Swallow, Ziva." Gibbs said sharply.

The little girl made a big show of swallowing her mouthful then repeated, "What're we doing today?"

"Nothing planned."

"What?" Ziva asked agast. "But it's your birthday."

"Uh huh, not my first."

The little girl turned to Abby to elicit support. The older woman's confirmed that she was on Ziva's side. "Come on, Gibbs. We can have a party, invite Ducky and Tony and Timmy round or we can go out to a restaurant or-"

"No," He told her gruffly as he stood up and took his half finished plate to the sink.

"He was always like that," Jackson explained, "Never wanted a party or a fuss. Only got to six before he was sick of 'em."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. It was sweet the way his daughter surprised him that morning and how Abby had popped in but he was never interested in a big fuss. He was looking forward to giving Ziva a birthday unlike any she'd ever had. He also always took Abby out on her birthday. Tony and Tim too, were always given special attention but he didn't want any of it reciprocated. None of them had known about Gibbs' birthday until Abby hacked into the system a few years ago. She hadn't made a big deal, just a coffee and a 'happy birthday'. And that had all been great until this one. He glanced at Ziva looking disappointed. He was pretty sure she had been at the base of this change.

After lunch Ziva had forgotten about her game and she and Abby were sitting in the living room chatting away. He spared a glance in their direction before pulling his father aside.

"Can you take Ziva out for a couple'a hours?"

He gave him a sympathetic smile. "What've I do to with Abby?"

"I'll deal with her." He said gratefully.

Jackson moved over to the couch. "We're gonna go out for a bit, little lady. Get your shoes and coat."

"What about daddy?" Ziva asked, popping her head round so she could see Gibbs washing the dishes.

"Nah, just you and me. Maybe we'll see something nice for your birthday when we're out."

Though she complied she moved slowly, uncertain about why they were leaving Gibbs behind. She thought maybe she had upset him earlier but wasn't exactly sure why. Still, Ziva pulled out her boots and tied them up before picking up her favourite coat.

"LJ, we're gonna take your car, ok?"

"Yeah, dad, fine." Gibbs called back. "See you later, Ziver."

Somewhat reluctantly, she replied, "Bye daddy."

Abby watched him from behind with her hands on her hips and let out a long, discontented sigh. He completely ignored her, knowing that she would say her piece in plenty of time. He was right.

"What did you do that for?" She asked, obviously frustrated. "She just wanted to celebrate your birthday with you."

"Don't need it celebrated, Abbs." Gibbs replied gently as he finished the last dish and turned to dry his hands.

They stared each other down for what was probably the longest time Abby had ever managed before she resigned herself and looked away. "Right, well, I'll get Ziva's presents out of the car. I'll pick her up at twelve tomorrow. My friend runs a dance shop so I should be able to get it cheaper."

Gibbs nodded to her before she went out to the car to bring out the stuff for Ziva. He had a good family, he was aware of that but the sooner this day was over with the better it would be for everyone. Despite his low mood, when Abby came in with her arms stacked with presents he had to laugh. All he could see were the tops of her pigtails sticking out. He swept over to her, grabbing the three gifts falling from the top of the pile.

"Abby," He warned.

"What? I promise this didn't cost too much." Abby assured him as she put the stuff on the floor and picked up a small wrapped rectangle. "This is just a DVD and this,"-she picked up a bigger rectangle-"is a book. See, educational."

Abby looked at him with her face a desperate pleading expression. When he sighed she bounced up and wrapped her arms around him. "You won't regret this."

"You're spoiling her."

"That may be so but she's my sister to spoil. Besides," she collected a few of them in her hands to take down to the basement, "you should see what Timmy got her."

Gibbs rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. When the next gift-giving event came upon them Ziva was definitely going to be disappointed after this hype.

 **I decided Gibbs wouldn't want a big thing. I just couldn't see it. I'll have the next chapter a little with Ziva and Jackson before we move straight passed it. Once again, sorry for the delay, thanks and REVIEW.**


	10. Ohana

**I re-wrote the summary to better explain how I've envisioned this story. I've been meaning to do that for several months now.**

 **Guest reviewer that left three reviews, pretending to be three different people: I actually completely respected your opinion until you started lying about being other people. People have opinions and I respect that but after that show I really don't have a lot of respect for you which is why I suspect that even though you said that you weren't coming back, I reckon you will. Anyway, I'm sorry you feel the need to review like that and your opinion has been received. If you want to log in we can PM about it. I'm always looking for other ideas on how to develop the story. Just remember, you don't need to pretend to be someone else just for your opinion to be heard :)**

Jack wasn't exactly sure where he was taking Ziva but he brought her out to his son's car anyway and unlocked the door. At the sight of the car seat, he steered back to help his young charge into it and clip in the seatbelt for her. He wasn't sure why an almost-five year old would need such a babyish seat however he didn't comment. If LJ had decided she needed it then she probably did and he wouldn't go against his son.

He decided to take her to the park to begin with before they chose something to occupy them for longer. As he'd never met his granddaughter before, he hadn't known what to get her for her birthday. Maybe he'd take her round the shops as well so he could get a better idea. Right now she was kicking her feet up and down so they bounced off the seat and every now and then she'd turn to her left, mumble something incoherent and laugh.

"Who're you talking to?" He called back as he stopped, looked both ways and made a right turn.

"Tali." Ziva replied without placing much emphasis. She turned again and whispered something. "She's my sister."

Without missing a beat he said, "Well that makes her my granddaughter too. Hey, Tali."

Ziva smiled gratefully at him, a small smile that very quickly grew to cover her entire face. She now knew, for an indisputable fact, that she _really_ liked her grandfather.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

When they got to the park, Jack took a seat on the bench and watched Ziva fly towards the climbing apparatus. She started by climbing up the fireman's pole instead of the ladders and then she swung along the monkey bars. He couldn't help but think that the drop was more than twice her height however he didn't comment. She would _probably_ be ok. He was frustrated with his son, though. Ziva had been so excited that morning and while he'd been good with the breakfast in bed-though to be honest, who wouldn't?-he had shortchanged the girls a bit afterwards. He pulled out his phone and dialled Gibbs' number.

"Dad? Everything ok?"

"Yeah, when I bring Ziva back later I'm going to head out for a bit." Jackson told him, shifting the phone to the other ear. "You and that little miss should spend some time together."

He hung up before his son could to make a point. Looking back up at Ziva, he noticed her balancing precariously on top of the apparatus with her arms stretched out to aid her balance. _Shit._ Jack sprung up from his seat and found himself standing where she was bound to fall to.

"But I'm fine." She called back, pushing herself onto her tiptoes.

"Now, please."

Ziva let out a long, discontented sigh before bending her knees to leap down onto the floor of the frame. She landed on her feet with a solid thud before looking him in the eye with an I-can't-believe-you-made-me-do-that sort of look. It shook him back to when LJ was a child and shot him that exact same look. God, he'd wanted to beat that look out of him. When his granddaughter sent him that look, however, he just smiled. He wasn't going to be the one to have to deal with years worth of insolence. Besides, he'd rather get to play the loving grandfather. Within a few seconds, however that look was gone and she had joyously moved to swing down the frame. She hit the ground with another hard thud and ran to the roundabout.

After half an hour of trailing after Ziva-who after he had told her to get down had insisted that he play with her-he was utterly exhausted. When his son was around the same age he'd done this but he had never been a particularly young father and it had been tiring even then. Now, he felt like he could have a heart attack if he kept up the pace. Ziva hadn't seemed to notice, however, and was ready to play. Instead, he made her another offer.

"How about we go to a coffee shop?" Jack bribed in between breaths. "You can get a hot chocolate?"

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Ziva's eyes grew five sizes when the waitress brought over their drinks. Her hot chocolate was topped by at least two and a half inches of whipped cream. Jack laughed when he noticed her, thanking the waitress for bringing them over. The child tried to lift up the drink however some of the liquid sloshed over the side. Instead, she leaned in to sip from it. When Ziva pulled back she had a cream mustache with a dollop on her nose. She managed to wipe most of it off with the back of her hand.

Still with an essence of a smile, Jack said, "what're you learning in school?"

"We're reading poems by Emily Dickinson." She informed him before taking another sip. "And Lewis is teaching me Russian."

"Wow, that's very impressive."

Ziva shrugged her shoulders. "I do not even think I'm the smartest person in the room most of the time. Maya has Pi memorized to over three hundred places and she can tell you what day something was on just by hearing the date. She said I was born on a Monday. I tested her by asking what day my eighteenth will be and she said Wednesday. I looked it up, she's right. Spencer can talk about physics and maths forever. His tutor has him learning really complicated stuff."

Jack nudged her lightly on the shoulder. "You're never gonna be the best at everything no matter how hard you try. Your dad said you speak ten languages. You know how many I speak? One."-Ziva smiled slightly-"But d'you know what I can do? I can fly a plane an' I can paint an' I can shoot, pretty decent might I add. Don't let the other geniuses get you down, kid. You're gonna meet thousands of 'em."

"Is daddy upset with me?" She looked up at him with those huge eyes and a pouty face and he couldn't help but melt.

"No, Ziva, of course he's not. His mother really liked birthdays and I don't think he really celebrated his much after she died." Jack tried to excuse. _One lie wont hurt_ , "But, tonight your dad's asked me to head out for a bit so you can spend some time together."

"Really?" And with that her face lit up and she began bouncing on her seat a little bit. "How old was he when his mother died?"

"Almost seven." His gaze dropped in the memory of Ann. Sure, they had been going through some rough times towards the end however he had still loved her and he always would. You can't love someone and spend that much time together and just be able to switch off those emotions. Sadly, it didn't work like that. He shook those bad feelings off for now. "Anyway, drink that up and we'll see what you might like for your birthday."

They had a gentle conversation while they sat at the café. Jack managed to learn more about his new granddaughter however he didn't hear anything about her former life. Infact, she didn't seem to be purposefully leaving it out either. He couldn't imagine returning to the age of five and having nothing to say about his life before. Was it unimportant to her? She certainly _seemed_ like a normal five year old. By the time he was at the end of his coffee he was beginning to question if she could even remember it.

"Do you remember Stillwater?" He asked as it was the only place he knew she hadn't been since her regression.

"Erm...a little bit." She answered, unsure of herself. "You have a shop and there're pictures up on the wall. The man daddy was named after is up on it. Can I come back sometime?"

"Sure." That hadn't been particularly conclusive. Gibbs should have told her anything about Stillwater. He made a mental-note to ask his son later about it. "Come on, little miss."

Ziva slipped off her seat and followed him out of the shop. It was the same shopping centre she'd managed to get herself lost in before but at least now she knew the way to the security desk.

"So...what do you want for your birthday then?" He asked, expecting a type of toy or something along those lines.

"A cat. A real cat."

 _Damnit. Not quite along the right tracks_. "Maybe something that's not so alive."

"Ok." Ziva seemed to accept that just fine. "A dog then."

"You want a _dead_ dog?"

"No." She drawled out the word as though he were stupid. "Like Stitch."

"Stitch?"

"Yeah. From _Lilo and Stitch._ They said ' _he was dead earlier'._ I mean, he's not a _real_ dog. He's an alien but they thought he was a dog. They got him from a shelter." She explained. "I think it's my favourite movie. It was the first movie we watched at movie nights."

"With Tony?" Jackson enquired.

"Yeah and it's Disney." She said quickly, taking herself over to the Disney shop without consultation. He followed her in without protest into the shop packed like sardines with children between the ages of 3-9 pushing and shouting, buggies with babies screaming in them and parents looking like they wish they'd grabbed their kids faster.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Jackson escorted his charge into the house, calling upon entry. Ziva immediately sprung onto the couch, lifted the remote and switched on the TV. Jack left her to it to seek out his son. It took him a whole seven seconds to find Gibbs in the basement working on a music box. He didn't go down the stairs because it would hurt his back and knees only to have to reascend in a few minutes anyway.

"Son, that's us back. Ziva's watching cartoons in the living room. I'll be back after dinner."

"Right, dad." With that, Gibbs returned the music box to a space out of direct view of the door. So long as Ziva followed the rules, he wouldn't need to hide it any better than that. He got up the stairs and found Ziva sitting as described. He sat down beside her. "Was thinking we could order some Chinese and watch a movie?"

She nodded emphatically. "Which one?"

"Dunno, just pick your favourite."

"Lilo and Stitch?"

"Sounds good." Gibbs kissed her head and pulled her in for a hug. "Usual Chinese?"

She nodded again and he left her to go and put in the order. Ziva shouted through, "I was telling Grandpa Jack about Lilo and Stitch earlier. He said it seemed _interesting._ "

He tried to nod along attentively while balancing the call to the Chinese. Somehow he managed it. When he hung up he sat down beside his daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulder while the cartoons played.

"So, what else did you do?"

He rarely allowed her to eat in the living room for this very reason. Way too much of the food always ending up either in the couch, on the floor or both. Tonight was one of those 'both' days. But she was happy, which counted, he supposed. He reckoned they were about a third into the movie which had seriously elevated Ziva's mood. Before it had started she had gone to put on her Stitch t-shirt which she often wore when they watched the movie. Tim had noticed it once when he was out shopping and had picked it up for her. It was up-there on her favourites as well.

"I'm sorry I bit you...and pulled your hair...and punched you in the face." Ziva mimicked in a whisper as Lilo apologised to Myrtle.

While she didn't know the entire movie, she could quote a good portion of it. He saw a lot of similarities between Lilo and Ziva. Perhaps that was why she was so fond of it but he didn't comment that out loud.

Her head shot round in his direction. "Abby brought round cake. Can we have some...or is it not allowed because it's birthday cake?"

Gibbs wasn't exactly sure where she had got that reasoning but he said anyway, "Course not. I really liked the breakfast and the card this morning and I appreciated the cake from Abby. Thanks, sweetpea."

She lit up. "I'll bring it through."-Ziva paused a minute-"after this scene."

The second the desired scene was over, she jumped up from the couch and through to the kitchen where the cake was sitting on top the island counter. Before collecting it, she fished the birthday candles out of the cutlery drawer. They had appeared after their last big shop, presumably in preparation for her birthday. All of them were stuck into the cake. The match box was placed protectively in her mouth so she could still carry the delight without dropping it. As soon as Gibbs saw her, he took the cake out of her hands and placed it on the coffee table. He oversaw her lighting the matches and light the candles, having to remind her to bow out the match before she burned her fingers.

"Happy birthday, daddy." Ziva grinned.

He kissed her crown. "Help me blow them out."

The sheer joy in his little girl's face made him wished he had let them make more of an effort earlier. Then again, it wouldn't be the same if it weren't just the two of them. Abby would have gone overboard and he would feel awkward with his dad there however it was easier with Ziva. It was easier to be sweet and compassionate and loving with her because she was just a little girl he had to protect.

So they sat with their birthday cake watching the movie that Gibbs had been forced to watch several times since she had come to stay permanently. With his arms around her shoulder and icing covered fingers stuck in her mouth they finished the film. It shot him right in the heart when she recited her favourite line.

"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little and broken, but still good. Yah, still good."

 **Lilo and Stitch is one of my all time favourite films. I actually see a bit of a similarity between Ziva and Lilo too. Thanks and REVIEW**.


	11. Prima Ballerina

**Have I had anything with genuine McGee in it? I've tried to put steps towards fixing that in this chapter. I just don't feel like I write McGee very well. Anyway, tell me what you think.**

Ziva usually dealt almost solely in 'boys' clothes' or at the very least, ungirly girls' clothes. This made it all the more surprising to Abby when Ziva gravitated immediately to the pale pink ballet dress with a very frilly skirt and a small bow and ribbon connecting the tank top to it. She went to the desk, leaving Ziva to rub her fingers against the frills. Locating the little bell on the table, she rung it. In under fifteen seconds a friend very befitting of Abby came round the corner. The woman was tall with a dancer's figure and multi colored hair pulled up into a messy bun. Her clothes were eccentric, the jumper matching her hair.

"Abby, I've been looking forward to seeing you!" The woman came round and hugged her. "And this must be Ziva, so you're starting ballet. You excited?"

"Yeah, I like this one. It is like the one I used to have." Ziva said without turning away. "But I had to give it to Tali."

"We'll try on the pumps first, 'kay?" Abby told her before leading them over to the seats.

Ziva took off her shoes and Abby passed one of them to the woman who then checked the size before disappearing. While she was gone, she informed the uninterested Ziva that her name was Norene. They'd met two and a bit years back at a concert when Abby had been drawn to her awesome attire. They'd been friends ever since. Ziva wasn't really listening however as she was busy looking at the dress she wanted.

"I didn't _want_ to give it to you. Mama made me." She hissed.

" _It was too small. You were almost ripping it_." Tali shot back from the seat beside her.

"Well now _I'm_ going to have it and _you're_ not." Ziva then stuck out her tongue at the space and threw her head up airily.

Norene returned with a shoebox filled with different sizes of pumps with the label 'child' on the side of it. She kneald down on front of Ziva and pulled out one before slipping it on her foot.

"Hey, look at that, like Cinderella. I'll just get you a new pair." While she'd tested the size against her shoe, usually it took her at least three times to find one that worked. She returned less than a minute later with a pale pink pair of pumps in a cellophane wrapper. "And you were interested in the dress as well?"

Ziva's head whipped round to look at Abby in a desperate manner. Abby nodded in agreement. "Yeah but she'll need to try it on."

"Got a changing room just through there." Norene told them, pointing passed the desk and into a room round back.

With that, Ziva took the dress through to the changing room while Abby and Norene waited. Almost five minutes later she reemerged, admitting that she was struggling to get it on. Abby then accompanied her back to the changing room to aid her. Arms up, with one quick swoop Abby managed to roll the dress right down the child with no difficulties. Ziva then proceeded to brush out the crinkles by sweeping her hands down it.

"Can I see?" Ziva asked as she looked around for a mirror.

"Um, yeah. I think I saw one out front." Abby replied, melting at the utter cuteness of the little girl on front of her. Once her hair was up and she had tights and her shoes to accompany it, it would be the whole package.

Norene looked up from the desk when they came through and put a hand on her chest. She mouthed to Abby ' _she's adorable_ ' as they passed. Yes, yes she was but Norene didn't have to witness all those other times when she was certainly less-than adorable. They found the mirror and Ziva moved into first position. She didn't do anymore, just turned around to look at Abby.

"This one. This is the one I want." Ziva said before realising how spoiled that sounded and added, "please."

Abby lifted the price tag out from the back of the dress before agreeing. She then took a pair of white tights down from the shelf and almost asked her to try them on as well before Norene stopped her. "I know I shouldn't be saying this, seeing as it's my own shop, but you can get them cheaper anywhere."

Touched by her honesty, she thanked her and returned to the changing rooms to help Ziva out of the dress. When they returned they quickly purchased the shoes along with it. Ziva very much liked the bag it was placed in, a paper one with a silhouette of a ballet dancer and the name of the shop printed in swirly letters on the side. Abby then took her hand, thanked Norene for the help and steered her out of the shop.

"Thank you, Abby." Ziva looked up at her smiling. "You're the best big sister."

"And you're an awesome little sister." Abby shot back with a wide grin. "Come on, we'll head back in a little bit, just gotta pick up a few things first."

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Ziva burst through the door with so much excitement Gibbs thought it might blow off its hinges. She didn't stop though, just ran straight up the stairs with a paper bag in one of her hands. Abby followed suite with a chirpy grin, shutting the door behind her.

"She loves it." Abby told him, almost bouncing up and down herself. "I'm not sure if she can get it on herself but she loves it and we found tights too and the pumps."

"How much?"

"Doesn't matter." She brushed him off. "Zee, do you need a hand?"

"No!" The little voice yelled.

Within a few seconds she was barreling down the stairs again. She had the dress on with the frills stuck out perfectly, the tights and the pumps. The only thing that took from the look of the prima ballerina were the wild curls. Ziva brushed them out of her face and behind her ear but they just fell back down again. Gibbs picked her up and kissed her cheek, filled with sheer love for the little girl.

"You're perfect, sweetpea." He told her, pulling her even closer.

"Come here, I'll show you how to put her hair in a bun." Abby said as she steered the pair to the couch and pulled out the pack of curby grips they'd stopped for. "Right, you watching? Because it'll be hard because her hair's so short and thick."

Abby pulled Ziva's hair back into a tight ponytail and tied it up before proceeding to twist the short locks round tight enough to seal with the curbies. Tentatively, she released it and it stayed put. She then turned back to Gibbs who wore a look of confusion. With a sigh, she took it down and started over, this time with running commentary. Every now and then she'd look over to the man to check he was paying attention. When it was finished, she once again took it all down before passing the buck to him.

"Ponytail." Abby instructed.

"Ponytail." He managed to efficiently pull it into the hairstyle he threw it into most often.

"Twist it."

"Twist it." When he'd finished twisting he accidently let go and it spun out of his grasp.

"Start again."

On the third try Ziva let out a long sigh, crossing her arms. This was getting very boring, very quickly. She fiddled with the frills. She pointed her toes and released, pointed and released. She stretched out her hand to survey her nails and fingers. Nope, definitely couldn't take it any longer.

"Can't he try it on _you_?" Ziva asked discontentedly half way through his fifth attempt. This time he had managed to almost secure it.

"Your hair's shorter and curly." Abby reminded her. "Besides, he's going to have to do it on Thursday."

She sighed again but this time stayed quite. After she felt like he'd whittled away most of her childhood Gibbs managed to secure the bun. On Abby's command, she shook her head as wildly as she could but it didn't come loose. With great excitement she leapt from her spot and up into the middle of the living room. Gibbs had never seen Ziva look so happy-ever. Not when she came to them 2005, nor when her American citizenship came through nor her official end to probation. Not when she had regressed and he taught her baseball nor the movie nights or the sleepover or anything. He had never seen that look of pure joy. Ziva had always been dedicated to shooting and her martial arts-passionate about them too-but _this_ was something different.

"I am _never_ taking this off."

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

She kept true to her word as well. Several hours had passed and she was still made up as a prima ballerina. Jackson had commented how pretty his 'little darling' looked when he came in from his walk and Abby had gone away home. They'd had lunch (Gibbs had recommended she take it off incase she dropped something on it but she had been extra careful with no repercussions) and it was now getting closer to dinner. Jack was watching an old western he'd found on the shelves and Gibbs had joined him. Ziva was sitting on her knees at the kitchen table doing her homework, humming away contentedly. A knock at the door broke the calm atmosphere. Gibbs was the one to answer it, welcoming McGee in from the cold.

"Boss," McGee acknowledged before seeing Jack. "Hey, Jack. How've you been? I heard you were in town."

"Meeting my granddaughter." He smiled back.

"Shalom, Tim." Ziva greeted. "You haven't been round in a while."

"Yeah, sorry, Ziva. I've been busy." Tim said apologetically. "I'll make it up to you."

"You can help me with my homework." She replied as she pulled out a worksheet from underneath the piece she was currently working on.

"Um, yeah, sure." McGee agreed, nodding again to the two Gibbs' and joining Ziva at the table. "Abby take you ballet shopping?"

"I'm never taking it off." She made it very clear.

"So, what's the work?"

There, the pair sat diligently for the next for the next forty minutes as McGee aided Ziva with her work. Her strengths lay very strongly in social subjects: history, geography etc. and languages, and sciences and maths didn't quite fall into that category. Fortunately for her, McGee was an expect. Gibbs had to hand it to the younger man, he could keep Ziva's attention far better than he could. She was a very energetic and boisterous child and only sat still for things she was interested in, such as her aforementioned strength subjects, reading, sometimes drawing and jigsaws depending on her mood. Every time her attention wavered he brought her expertly back to the matter at hand.

"Science is just _so_ boring." Ziva complained after the umpteenth time of being brought back on topic. "I will never need it and it doesn't even make sense."

McGee, after trying to explain something with no luck, suddenly stopped. "Have you got any empty soda bottles and fizzing tablets?" He asked, placing the paper down on the desk.

"What?"

"Erm...like Alka Seltzer or..." With better thought, he turned the question to Gibbs instead who verbally directed him to a cupboard. "And we'll need that soda bottle and some food colouring."

Ziva fished out an almost empty soda bottle and poured the half cup worth into a mug. She brought it to the table and returned to root about for the food colouring.

"Will this do?" She asked, holding a tiny blue bottle as far away from her dress as possible.

"Yeah," He took it off her, completely absorbed in what he was doing. While Ziva went to wash the blue that had seeped into her fingers off, McGee got together vegetable oil and and some water. When she returned he began setting it up. He poured in the water then the oil, followed by the food colouring and finally he passed the tablet to Ziva. Tim gestured to her to drop it in and she did. The insides of the bottle looked like a lava lamp.

"See, oil is less dense than water which is why it'll stay above the water. The oil and water don't mix because of intermolecular polarity. Molecular polarity basically means that water molecules are attracted to other water molecules. They get along fine, and can loosely bond together...erm, similar to magnets that are attracted to each other. Oil molecules are attracted to other oil molecules, they get along fine as well but the structures of the two molecules don't allow them to bond together."

Ziva watched in fascination and awe that McGee had managed to pull that off completely on his own. She'd been learning about some very rudimentary physics however McGee's demonstration really brought it to life. She decided she'd ask him every time she had maths or science homework which was boring.

"Can you take a picture of it?" Ziva asked. "I want to put it at the bottom of my homework so Miss Lannert sees 'learning in action'. I heard another teacher talk to her about it for ages and ages."

McGee took a picture on his phone while Ziva answered the questions that he'd just explained to her. All the while, she looked up to see her pretty lava lamp. It reminded her she'd always kind of wanted a real one.

Ziva put the work to the side when she'd finished it. "Do you know how to do anything else cool like that?"

"Erm...I can make a volcano." McGee replied, glad he had managed to bring Ziva on-side with the 'science is cool' gig.

"No." Gibbs picked up on that from the living room. "No volcanos. Ziva, go put your homework in your bag."

Huffily, she dragged her completed homework down from the desk. "Next time you're going to show me more."

Gibbs nodded to McGee in praise with a grin. Tim beamed before ducking his head, embarrassed. Still, he tidied up the table and put everything back where it belonged. Gibbs watched his youngest agent as he did so. He hadn't just stopped by to help Ziva with her homework. There was something wrong but he wasn't sure what it was. As soon as the stuff was cleared up, Gibbs stood.

"Hey, Tim, help me with the boat."

"Uh, ok."

Gibbs led the man down to the basement. He directed Tim to the frame of the boat and began sanding it down. Without complaint, he complied. The pair of them worked like that, sanding down the frame, the rough wood beneath their hands, until Tim was ready to speak. McGee had almost finished an entire rib before he sighed and ran his hand through his hair but instead of speaking he simply continued sanding. Gibbs didn't push him. He waited. Eventually, he spoke.

"Um, boss." McGee began tentatively.

"Yeah."

"I finished my book." He mumbled. "My publisher's read it and the editor and it's going to print soon."

"Uh huh."

"That case where a woman was murdering those people because they were characters in my book…" He drawled. "And then there was that stuff with Abby-"

"McGee." Gibbs interrupted, trying to get him to get to the point.

"It's just...I'm nervous something like that could happen again." Tim admitted. "And I was wondering if you could read it over for me before it goes to print."

He figured that's where it was going. "Yeah. Drop it off."

"Thanks boss."

"No problem."

"I can e-mail it when I get home." Gibbs shot him a look. "Or...I'll give you a paper copy tomorrow because you don't use e-mail."

 **Quick note, I know nearly nothing about physics or science-y stuff and everything related to that field has been copied and pasted from various sites with minor adaptations to try and make it more fluent.**

 **Thanks and REVIEW.**


	12. Fifth Birthday

**Everything computer related has been supplied by a friend because it's definitely not my forte.**

Ziva's fifth birthday had unfortunately clashed with a school day which was disappointing. He had, however, managed to rally her spirits and get her to school on time with the promise he would most definitely get away to pick her up from school for three o'clock.

"I don't want grandpa." She had reminded him sulkily. "I want you."

"Uh huh, and you'll get me." He said for the umpteenth time as he unbuckled her belt and lifted her down from the car.

Now he was parked outside the school at 14:55 waiting for her to come out. He would take her home, open some of his and Grandpa Jack's gifts and enjoy the day. The others would join them after work and they'd go out to the cinema and then to a restaurant. He wasn't going to let this turn into their other days. He wanted this to be special.

From the looks of it, when the pint sized human came barreling out of school it already had been. She had a birthday bag in one hand with the balloon tied to it and a badge saying '5' in shiny paper, none of which she had had when he dropped her off that morning. Gibbs got out the car and knelt down to greet her.

"They remembered it was my birthday!" She told him in glee. "Miss Lannert brought in some cupcakes and everybody gave me something and Emily made this badge at lunch."

Ziva showed him the bag that had a myriad of little things ranging from a book to a small plush toy to a handful of sweets, not that she needed it as she was still diligently working her way through her halloween candy. He'd had to put a cap on her daily allowance after the first day.

So he helped her in and drove home with the amount of exuberance one would expect from an excited puppy...or a five year old on her birthday, he supposed. It was absolutely enchantin to listen to her ramble on about this, that and the other as he drove the familiar streets. He couldn't wait for her to see what her grandfather had done. Gibbs, himself, had thought it was a little much however he hadn't wanted to quell his father's nor his daughter's joy so he let them have it. Honestly, he had no idea what he was going to do when Jackson went away home at the end of the month.

When they entered the house even Gibbs was surprised. There were balloons seemingly everywhere and a 'Happy 5th Birthday' banner hanging across the arch that led into the kitchen. On the coffee table were presents some of which were in pink or purple wrapping (containing Jack's presents) and the other colours by Gibbs. He couldn't believe that his father-the man he'd known all this time, his strict, sensible, low-key, corner shop father-had gone to so much work for a granddaughter he'd only just met.

"Woah." Ziva breathed out, her meager balloon forgotten as she stumbled into wonderland.

"So, little miss. Do you want to do presents now or something to eat?"

Ziva swivelled her head round to look at her daddy and then to Grandpa Jack. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked between them. Before any could fall she'd stolen herself away up to her room, leaving the beauty of the day downstairs. Gibbs sighed. He'd tried to step forward to give her a reassuring hug before she'd become overwhelmed but he'd been just too late.

"Did I do something wrong?" Jack asked in concern.

"No, dad. She's just not used to people caring." Gibbs turned to the stairs, "Make her some toast or something, we'll be down in a minute."

"Oh, LJ." Jack called, stopping his son. "This came for you today. Israeli postmark."

Gibbs looked down at the package with the plain brown envelope. He knew exactly who it was from. He sat down and tore it open revealing two cards and a gift wrapped in bright paper. Respectfully, he only opened the envelope with his own name on it. Gibbs sifted through the contents of the letter and swore. It seemed that Eli wanted to be respectful to in ' _honouring_ Gibbs as Ziva's father'. As such, he had not sent his gift directly to her and it was up to Gibbs to do what he pleased with it. Now, he felt he had no choice. He never would, but if he now chose to keep the gift from her, he'd be the git that denied her it while Eli got to sit on his high horse. They hadn't had a lot of contact with Eli, which was a good thing, but he knew she valued it at least a little. In defeat, he carried the present and card up to his crying child.

He entered her room and found her sitting on her bed with her legs in a basket twiddling her thumbs. Every now and then she sniffled a little bit or twitched her hand to wipe away a stray tear. Gibbs sat down beside her and pulled her into his side.

"I'm fine." She promised and then sniffled again. "I was just...overwhelmed."

"I know." He kissed her crown and ran his hand threw her wild curls. "You got this in the mail today."

Gingerly, Ziva took the card and gift out of Gibbs' hands and looked at them. She already knew they were from her father, her _other_ father who she spent most of her time pretending didn't exist. Gibbs watched as she opened the card and read it, displaying little to no emotion as she propped it up on her bedside table and began peeling the wrapping off of the present. Inside were two cardboard boxes, one with Hebrew on the lid. The box without writing, she opened first to reveal a box of treasures: Aka Chocolates from Tel Aviv, a small bracelet, a small fairy ornament etc. She popped one of the chocolates in her mouth and placed them back on the bed before opening the other box. Inside was the quilt she had been promised when they'd spoken months ago. Her mother had made it when she was a teenager with her grandmother. It had meant so much to her. Tucked in, there were other things belonging to her mother including her Star of David. Ziva stared at it for a minute.

"Can you put it with mine?" She asked.

Obligingly, Gibbs took the necklace over to the chest of drawers and placed it caringly into the top one with her other precious things. When he turned around she had pulled out the quilt and made up her bed with it. Other than that she didn't react much, simply tucking the two boxes in under her bed. Ziva stood silently, tracing her fingers over the patches on the quilt.

"Come here." He whispered, stretching his arms out and picking her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest. They didn't get a lot of communication from Eli but when they did she always became a little withdrawn afterwards. It was often hard to perk up her spirits again. It was her birthday though, and he wanted it to be as special as he could make it.

"Do you want to come down stairs?" She nodded into his chest and he carried her down supportively. When they got down she didn't shy away, wasn't seemingly ashamed of her emotions on front of her new family member. He was pleased with that. On the table was a sandwich with a packet of crisps next to it waiting for her. Across from it was Jack making head way on his own snack, two coffees out for the older men.

Gibbs tried to place her on the bench but her hands clenched his shirt tighter and she spoke firmly, "No."

Instead, he maneuvered himself so she could sit on his lap and eat. With that extra bit of care, she came back to life. By the end of her meal she was conversing with her dad and grandpa about all the wonderful things she was going to do that day, about the presents she could get and the long awaited birthday cake.

"Can I open my presents now?" Ziva asked cheerfully with a small, hopeful smile.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at her before smirking and patting her back to tell her it was all right. In excitement, she flew from his lap and dropped to the side of the coffee table, surveying the presents waiting just for her. Nobody had gone overboard but to a five year old it was like being presented with Aladdin's cave. Gibbs nodded his father over to join him. He'd briefly considered waiting for the rest of the team but decided against it, knowing she'd get plenty more from them and would be able to dedicate way more time and gratitude if they were spread out. Slowly but surely, she made her way through the pile by starting with Jack's gifts. After each and every one, she thanked him profusely as though she had spent too long in a desert without water and he had just granted her some. When she got to Gibbs' the first thing she opened was the music box.

"Daddy, did you make this?" She breathed in wonder as she opened it. The soft melody played around her as she wound the handle round.

"Yeah."

"It's beautiful." Ziva admired the box itself before adding. "Mama used to sing that song."

She'd mentioned that once and he'd done his best to get that specific lullaby for her. It had taken a lot of work but when he looked at her face he knew it had been worth it. Daintily, she placed it on the table before unwrapping the rest of the gifts. Perhaps they were spoiling her, but for the first time he didn't care in the least.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Abby and Tim entered the house around five thirty and due to the single car, Gibbs assumed they'd shared a ride. They exchanged pleasantries but was surprised when he didn't see Tony pulling up in the driveway a few minutes after. Tim quickly explained that he'd be a little late but he'd still make it in time, he'd promised. With no further questions, Gibbs decided that the agent could take care of himself and so long as he didn't let Ziva down, he owed them no explanation.

Abby pulled Gibbs aside. "Zee's presents. I dropped them off, remember?"

He nodded before leading her down to the basement where he had tucked all of them in under the stairs. With difficulty, they brought them up to the living room and put them out similarly to how the two Gibbs' presents had been earlier. Being able to directly compare them to his own mental image, Abby's host of presents seemed even more extreme now. He sent her a glare which was completely ignored. Ziva looked on with a cheeky grin. She knew she was being completely spoiled and was loving every second of it. While some of the presents were simple and appropriate-a few books (which were now falling over and would take months to get through), Lilo and Stitch sequels (which she hadn't known existed), some clothes etc.-Abby had also included some far too expensive gifts to shower her with, for instance the toy helicopter. Ziva wrapped her arms around Abby with overwhelming gratitude which the older woman had been more than happy to return.

Gibbs was pleased when McGee dashed out to his car and only returned with one present, a reasonably big rectangular box. No matter what the size though, he rested assured that there was only one of it. Boy, he was wrong.

"Careful." Tim warned as he handed it over with a grin from ear to ear stretched across his face.

As she had difficulty holding it, she placed it on the floor and tore at the paper to reveal a brand new notebook laptop. With the exception of Abby, they all looked at him in shock, knowing it must have cost a lot considering it was for a five year old's birthday. Whether he noticed or not, he continued as though he hadn't.

"12 gigs of ram, a terabyte hard drive, three USB ports and the image! 10 inches of wonder at 1920 by 1080p. And an Intel core i7 processor, and the track pad! Product of the future." He listed with enthusiasm, still completely ignorant to the looks of everyone but Ziva. "I'll help you set it up later."-Finally he looked up and surveyed the scene-"F-for homework. I got her it for homework."

"Thank you, Tim." Ziva purred with a large smile.

"We're gonna have some time limits on that." Gibbs warned but other than that said nothing.

Evidently, that fact meant nothing to her. She was just pleased to have it and everything else she'd received. "When is Tony getting here?"

"Call 'im." Gibbs instructed McGee. "We're gonna have to go in ten."

"I don't want to go without him." Ziva complained. "It won't be the same."

"He'll be here." Abby assured her. "Come on, I'll help you get ready."

While McGee called Tony, Jackson cleared away the wrapping paper and Gibbs moved all of the new stuff into Ziva's room. Tim informed them that he was running late and he'd meet them at the cinema. The five of them made their way out to the car however when Ziva shuffled along behind them, Gibbs pulled her back.

"What's up?"

"Are we all going in the same car?" She asked without meeting his eyes.

"No, Abby and Tim'll go in his one. Why?"

"No reason." She glanced out. "Are they going to leave first?"

Gibbs clicked and knelt down on front of her. "Ziver, that seatbelt isn't there to humiliate you. It's there to keep you save. I told you what would happen if you kept unbuckling your seat and you didn't listen."

She shuffled about on the spot and rubbed her arm with her other hand. "I know but...I just don't want them to see."

"We'll discuss it in a month. Until then Ziva, remember there're consequences for your actions." But he humoured her for now and waved the other two on before strapping Ziva in. He wouldn't go out of his way to keep it between them because if he'd been on the ball Abby would already know about it as she'd taken her shopping, however he wouldn't draw undue attention either. When they arrived, he noticed both McGee's and Tony's cars parked outside and assumed they'd gone in. It seemed today was Ziva's lucky day.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

The movie and restaurant had gone off without a hitch. All parties involved had very much enjoyed their outing. By the time they left the restaurant he wondered if the day had maybe been a bit much for his tot as she was all but sleeping in his arms. He placed her in the car seat and she lulled her entire body over and shuffled into a comfortable sleeping position.

"Ziver, arms." Gibbs attempted to instruct as he weaved her arms threw the strap loops. It took way too long to do so because she was curling in on herself, trying to fall asleep. Eventually though, he managed and clipped the two arm straps into the one the connected through her legs. Gibbs sighed, hoping as much as she did that she would behave and allow him to remove the belt in favour of the traditional one. This was far too much work for when she was almost asleep but not quite. When they got back to the house she was fast asleep and had to be carried inside. He was just about ready to take her up the stairs when Abby piped up.

"It's not that late and we've not done the cake yet."

"Abbs, she's asleep."

"Leave her down stairs, LJ. See if she wakes up."

Relenting, he lay Ziva down on the couch. He left her there simultaneously praying she would stay asleep and he could have an easy night while also hoping she would wake up and they would continue her celebrations. The adults gathered together in the kitchen, the younger three seated at the table and the two Gibbs' leaning against the island counter. All of them had a beverage and were enjoying each other's company.

"Jack," Abby piped up with a troublesome look on her face, "What was the great Gibbs like as a kid?"

Jackson chuckled, wiping away a dribble of beer that had slipped down his chin. "A hell raiser. Couldn't sit on his backside for two minutes without looking for trouble, like that little miss,"-he gestured to Ziva-"though she's smarter than you were."

"Has thirty years on what I did." Gibbs reminded him.

"When LJ was twelve, we had some girl scouts coming round selling cookies and one of the girls was in his class, Katy or Kitty or something-"

"Dad." Gibbs tried to silence him, unwilling to revel in the embarrassing memory of his former self.

"So anyway," He continued, undeterred. "Kathy. Kathy, that was her name! Came round with her Scout cookies with another little girl and LJ answered the door, head over heels in a second. I think she was maybe thirteen or fourteen, wasn't she? Anyway, she played him along for a while and he spent two months allowance on those cookies. We spent six months making our way through those boxes and you never got so much as a kiss."

Gibbs grinned with the rest of the group but bit his tongue back from adding to it. He'd dated her for a year when he was sixteen and had managed to get much more than a kiss. He did however, learn a valuable lesson from that experience: which was not to trust someone flirting with you if they need something.

"But that wasn't his first experience with a girl. When he was eight…"

Gibbs sighed, listening to his father ramble on about his childhood. At the look on Tony's face he knew that letting his dad get to such close proximity with the group was a bad idea if he was interested in privacy, which to at least some extent he was. It gave him a chance to reflect on their little family as a whole. He'd relied on them professionally before and they had all relied on him in both their home/work situations. He felt Shannon would be proud of him for creating this family and for reconnecting with his father.

"I 'member when you came home after a brawl with some of the neighbour boys. You looked like you'd taken on a pack of wolves." Jackson laughed, reveling in his memories.

"Might as well've done." There'd been three of them, two his own age and another one his senior by three years, one of the other boy's brother. He'd held his own but in the end there was one of him and three of them.

"You always rubbed people up the wrong way, son?" Jack asked jokingly. "Always came to your rescue if I thought you weren't gonna make it, toughened you up a bit. Made a good marine."

For the umpteenth time since his father's arrival, he wondered how he could be so sweet and loving to Ziva. It also crossed his mind that he might have been a different father had Gibbs been born a girl. Still, he wouldn't take her loving grandfather away and nor did he really wish to have a father similar. It was what it was and he did love his dad.

Within half an hour, just around the time Gibbs was about to carry her up to bed, Ziva woke. Instead of groggily holding onto sleep, she was awake in seconds and very ready to finish off her birthday celebrations. Tony took the opportunity while Jack was finishing a story and McGee, Abby and Gibbs were in the kitchen sorting the cake to get her on her awkwardly passed Ziva a small box, well and very beautifully wrapped. She shuffled forward on her knees to take it from him before plopping back properly and making careful headway with it. One could almost feel the man's nerves as she did so. With the ribbon discarded she pulled the lid off and revealed two Opera tickets.

"Um...I didn't know if you'd still...I mean, anymore...for your sister." He finished lamely, suddenly regretting the idea to give a five year old opera tickets.

Ziva continued to stare at them, her eyes seemingly penetrating the paper in her hands as though it would somehow do something. A gesture, a beautiful small gesture that was there for her.

Tony didn't realise though, second guessing himself and tried to step forward. "Hey, nevermind, I'll get you a more age-appropriate gi-"

The child wrapped her arms around his neck forcefully. Effectively being cut off, he returned the hug and stroked her hair a few times with his free hand. For only them to hear he heard 'Toda' being uttered and felt her lift her hand to wipe the tears away from her eyes before she pulled away.

"Any time, kid." He promised as he brushed off a stray tear with his thumb. "Coming in for some cake?"

"In a minute."

He left her in the living room to grieve in private for a moment and as promised, in less than sixty seconds she was bounding in to show the rest of the group her tickets. Gibbs lifted her and glanced at the tickets.

"Sunday 21st? You takin' her, Dinozzo?" He asked, trying to plan his month.

"If you want." Tony agreed, glad that Ziva was pleased with her present.

"You hold onto 'em then." Gibbs passed them back to the younger man as he didn't want his five year old holding onto the expensive tickets he was sure she'd lose. "Right, you ready?"

The room sang 'Happy Birthday' to her as the candles on the cake flickered away. When they reached the end, she looked round at the awaiting looks and inferred she was now supposed to blow them out. She did go with glee.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Way past her bedtime, after everyone had gone home Gibbs carried a conked out little girl up to her temporary bed. Even Jack was saying he was about to head up. On the way, he took out a pair of pyjamas from her room. Carefully as not to waken the sleeping girl, Gibbs changed her. Fortunately when he pulled up her trousers and laid her back against the bed she was still asleep. She must be tired if she'd slept through all of that, usually it would have woken her. He tucked her in and kissed her forehead before retreating.

"Night sweetpea."

 **I'm aware that this is set in 2012 and Ziva told Tony about the opera in 2013 however I've chosen to ignore that minor detail for the purposed of this story. As you've probably realised, not all of my information is exactly linear though I do try to be.**

 **Thanks and REVIEW.**


	13. Ballet Class

**I kinda forgot to update this so you guys can thank Gibbsgirl1961 for reminding me. The next one is written so I'll have it up fairly soon.**

 **Also, I know nothing about ballet. Everything I do know has been found online. Please, keep this in mind while reading.**

The rest of the week had passed without major incident. Everyday when Ziva came home from school she'd immerse herself in her new things. The remote control helicopter had been a big hit and she'd taken great joy in poking it into every section of their lives. Eventually, Jackson (with later support from Gibbs) instructed her to only play with it outside. She had only conceded when it was confiscated and 'to be returned at a later date'. On Thursday Jack had picked her up from school and taken her to ballet with the promise her father would pick her up for the end of the lesson.

"Be good." He reminded her; as though she were ever bad.

The last time she'd attended a ballet class she'd been twelve. She had been utterly in love with it since her Ima had enrolled her at the age of two-against her father's wishes. Ziva hadn't wanted to quit, not in the slightest however her mother had died two years previous when she was ten. Since then she'd had to take up more responsibilities around the house: look after Tali, do her schoolwork and train like her father had wanted her to. She just hadn't had time to fulfil all of her obligations. Her own wishes had to take a backseat. Now was different though. Ziva looked out onto the class of other girls. There were eight others, one of which she recognised. Emily was there.

"Shalom." Ziva greeted.

"Ziva!" Emily said cheerfully and threw her arms around the surprised Ziva. "You take ballet?"

"This is my first lesson here."

"Well, that's Clarke and Beatrice and Toni…" She continued to list the names of the other girls. "Clarke's six and Toni's nine but most of them are seven but Ms Rees said that I was good enough to join this class,"-warily she looked at Ziva and added-"I was the youngest here...in school too."

Suddenly feeling a little vulnerable, Ziva stooped her head for a moment and looked at her pump-covered toes. She wanted to get on well with Emily but she wasn't sure how to do that without compromising herself. Those thoughts were quickly pushed out of her mind when the older girl ducked down so they were face to face and stuck her tongue out before bursting into a fit of giggles. Ziva tried to accommodate her but it was clear for anyone to see that adjusting her social parameters was the most difficult task she'd had to get over since regressing. She could soak up a wealth of knowledge, interact with Gibbs and the rest of their family, adapt to separating her dream-like previous life from her current one but learning to socialise with girls her age was difficult though she desperately wanted to. Fortunately, she was given a break from this as the teacher came forward for the class to start, effectively ending the discussion. They stretched along the barre for a time before moving on through the various positions. Ziva basked in the activity she had longed for since she'd quit. She also found that she didn't miss the ways in which her older self had been better at the art. It had been years since she'd participated, she'd regressed and couldn't expect to be as graceful as before, as _perfect_. Emily however, who performed less than a foot away from her, was absolutely stunning. She could see why she had also been moved up.

"Right, we'll pick up from where we left off last week." Ms Rees then proceeded to give a demonstration and then gestured for the girls to follow suit.

The others, being a week ahead, had more fluidic movements than Ziva however she performed undeterred and with pride. Rees smirked at her determination despite the slightly clunky movements. She was going to be a welcomed addition-with time, of course. In the meantime she ordered Emily to assist the child in perfecting the movement.

"When did you start?" Emily questioned before adding absentmindedly, "your position's off slightly."

With help, she corrected the mistake. "I was two but I couldn't go after Ima died."

"Oh." Her gaze dropped but she returned it with force. "Did you go to babyballet? 'Cause I did when I was two. Ms Rees is friends with my mummy so she let me go to her beginner class when I was three instead of four. That's why I'm here. I also get to call her Carrie, but not in class. You're forgetting to point your toes."

Once again, Ziva corrected a mistake. "I do not really remember. I went up to the next class just before I turned four."

"But if you're just five and your _Ima_ died not long ago and you had to quit how did you become good enough for the advanced class?" Emily shot her with a quizzical look and dropped out of her stance.

Suddenly realising that her timeline didn't add up, Ziva dropped both heels on the floor and wondered how to recover from her mistake. Ms Rees returned before it developed.

"Emily, Ziva, this is a dance class, not a talking class." She came over and instructed the other girl to continue practicing while she advised Ziva. Within a few minutes she beamed, "there, you're getting it."

Ziva beamed with her. With a supportive smile in an attempt to not be scolded again for talking, Emily executed a fouetté with the smile flashed casually to the younger girl. Pride and amusement swelled up in her. She'd made a new friend.

The amusement was only added to when Ms Rees called, "Emily, we are not doing fouettés right now."

Ziva covered her smirk with her hand. She then heard muttered, "Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done."

"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires," quoted Ziva, ever unwilling to be undone.

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know." Inserted Emily teasingly.

"Emily!" Ms Rees shrieked in frustration. "Get to the other barre, now."

In a whisper so only they could hear, Ziva finished, "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it."

And she was shot a mischievous grin as Emily did as instructed.

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Gibbs arrived almost bang on half four feeling pleased with himself. When he got to the doors of the hall there were a handful of parents waiting for their own children. He'd kept a promise without his dad's aid which gave him hope for their future when he returned to Stillwater. The group of girls were disbanded in quick succession and he watched as Ziva left the class chatting and giggling with another girl. He approached at the same time as a mother did.

"Mummy, this is Ziva. She goes to my school. Can she come round tonight?" Emily spewed excitedly to the woman.

Gibbs turned to her and as they shook hands she introduced herself. "Rose, this is my daughter Emily."

"Gibbs."

"If Ziva wants to come round for a bit she can. I can feed her too."

"Can I, daddy?" Ziva asked, her head whipping round for approval.

"Erm…" He was taken aback that the first time he'd managed to make it somewhere on time he was being trumped in favour of a play date. But he relented because his daughter's happiness was more important than his pride.

The parents exchanged contact information and Rose was understanding in why he would want to drop her off and see where he was leaving his daughter. In under twenty minutes he was driving away from a nice little white picket fence house feeling a little more than rejected. Still, he'd signed up to be a father. So instead of spending an evening with a hyperactive five year old, he would spend it having a quiet night. As long as he got her back at the end of the day, he mused, it seemed like a fair deal.

 **I've counted out my plans for this story and I reckon we've got another eight chapters minimum. Depending on some of my stuff works out, it could be closer to fifteen. Anyway, thanks and REVIEW.**


	14. The Opera

**So I was deliberating over this question for a time and I'll set it to you guys: Do you think there is an inherent difference between 'mom' and 'mum' and does it read differently?**

 **I used the latter for something Tony says in this chapter however I would like to know if you think I should use 'mom' for speech by Americans and if you think it's a big deal. Anyhow, enjoy :)**

The twenty-first had honed in on them very quickly much to Ziva's delight. Usually she spent her time dreading her sister's birthday but now she wasn't quite so alone and everyone she loved knew about it. Gibbs had been supportive throughout the day and kept a special eye on her. Jack had brought in a small cake with considerable fluffy icing on top. He'd even salvaged a candle to make the event even more special. She'd spent the day playing with Tali and building forts and climbing the trees in the garden. Now though, she'd had a bath and was getting changed in her room. Tali sat gracefully on the bed, all made up with her hair in a fancy dutch crown and an expensive pink dress. She was kicking her feet back and forth and making a thumping sound against the bed frame.

" _I sing better than you_." Tali shot teasingly before sticking her tongue out.

"And I _dance_ much better than you." She retorted and backed it up with a plié.

Gibbs knocked on the door. "You ready?"

"I cannot get the zip up by myself."

Gibbs entered and helped zip up the dress at the back. She'd chosen it specially for the Opera. It was purple and frilled out at the skirt, the colour matching the shoes too. Though she claimed to hate dressing up, the recent expenditure on dresses for ballet and this made him think she ought to reconsider her stance. Her other clothes-the ones covered in mud and dirt from her earlier activities-were discarded in the corner of the room which admittedly did shed doubt on that previous thought. Still, he brushed out her hair and pulled it half-up for her.

"Toda." She thanked.

They heard the door ring from down the stairs and he was hit by a perplexed look. All of their family just came in and they rarely had other guests. He nodded to her to go answer it. With surprise, she found Tony at the other side of it dressed to impress. He had on a tux with his hair combed back and a generous but not overwhelming amount of cologne. Tony sent her his award winning smile.

"Ready to go, Zee?"

"Ready." She spoke with conviction and a childish lilt that made his heart flutter.

"Tony." Gibbs directed him over and handed him his keys. "Easier than giving you the seat."

He'd previously given Abby the old booster seat however as there'd only been one, the rest of the team had to make do. Dinozzo nodded and turned to go but Gibbs pulled him back again. "She was unstrapping her seatbelt and I had to change the straps." He told him, looking firmly in his eyes for any trace of a desire to mock her. "Do not tease her. Do not call unneeded attention to it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Of course." Dinozzo replied. He knew his reputation but even he knew where the line was...most of the time. Since he took his jokes too far when she'd initially regressed he'd matured considerably in relation to what was appropriate and what wasn't. "Bring her back later, boss."

She stooped her head when she saw they were taking Gibbs car but honestly, Tony couldn't see the big deal. Other than Gibbs he was sure he was the closest to her out of all of them. Their movie nights had been the most revealing. He'd seen her through all of her stages since regressing, the highs and the lows, the most mature (predominantly at the start) and her most childish. He didn't even see her as Ziva David anymore, the sexy (and very first characteristic to disappear), badass, confident young woman. Now she was Ziva Gibbs, a funny, intelligent, mischievous yet still confident little girl. There was no real comparison to him. Tony had separated them in his head permanently on their first movie night. They'd been watching a movie with a 12 rating but one he hadn't deemed too scary for their 'miniature assassin' as he had affectionately called her after 'miniature midget fairy' had earned him a head slap. Ziva had been scared though he didn't realise it until she was pressed into his side and her breathing hitched. He'd wrapped his arm around her and casually remarked that it was nothing compared to a specific case they had worked. She'd had no recollection. In that moment, Ziva David and Ziva Gibbs were two completely separate entities that shared nothing but a similar past.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

The opera house was huge and beautiful, filled with people dressed up to the nines. It wasn't the first time Ziva had been in there but it still took her by surprise due to how stunning it was. They filtered in through the building and were directed up to their seats. She was surprised when they were led up to a box seat just above the orchestra.

"How much was this?" She breathed, clambering up to look over the side.

"Not too much, careful." He pulled her back carefully to her seat. "But to make it affordable I kinda had to get a partially obstructed view."

Ziva looked out to see a speaker. From her seat it barely cut out any of the stage but she presumed it would cut out considerably more from Tony's. Either way, it didn't matter to her. She was there and it was beautiful. With still a while to start she marvelled at the rest of the room, to the people below that were just going about their lives with no semblance to her own. Almost directly below them was the orchestra. Out in the crowds there was a young couple whispering sweet nothings to each other and behind them, an old couple bickering. It was a scene of pure elegance for the exception of one young lady who had entered wearing an unconventional style: space buns and shorts with a tank top, a long coat to hit it off. The entire room seemed drawn to the woman who sat down with confidence. After seeing her, the rest of the room held little wonder.

Ziva leaned back in her seat and rolled her head towards Tony. He'd been spotting her and he still hadn't averted his eyes. She turned her head away and peered back over the ledge. There was plenty of magic in the room. She chewed on the Aka chocolates Eli had sent her and offered one back to Tony. He took it gratefully before joining her over the edge.

"So, what're their stories?" Dinozzo asked as he snagged another chocolate. She asked him what he meant and he elaborated. "My mum used to make up stories for people. Like...say...him,"-he pointed towards a straight-laced looking man in a suit-"Paul Richards, international businessman. Never married, no children. Currently dating a twenty year old who's only looking for his money. I mean, he knows that, he's not naive. Grew up in the city, probably DC or New York. He does have an odd hobby of collecting sticks though."

Tony shot Ziva a cheeky look and she began giggling. "'Kay, my turn. Her,"-she pointed to the woman who had drawn her attention earlier-"Erm...Lyra Starkey. She is in college, majoring in drama, something 'out there'...She probably likes modern art."-She suddenly became very excited-"and she stays in an apartment with two roommates. One of them wants to be a musician and the other does things like modern art. They like to go out dressed like that to fancy places to see other people's reactions. Look at her, she's enjoying it."

Tony smirked before he continued people watching. Like that, they whiled away the time before the opera started. They were introduced to a wide range of people, from Frankie who'd saved up for months upon months to pay for the night to Calla who'd been born into riches to Marie who'd spent her life trying to break other's gender expectations. When it started, they both averted their eyes from the crowd and watched the stage instead. From the moment the curtains were drawn she was completely enthralled: the music, the production, down to complete perfection. At one point Tony looked over to see her with her eyes closed and as he presumed she was sleeping, nudged her awake.

"I'm just listening right now." Ziva explained with her eyes still closed. "What you hear is more important."

With the orchestra right below them, the sound emanated upwards and surrounded their little box like their own personal bubble. He was pleased he'd chosen those seats. Perhaps they weren't the best to view it however they were certainly the best to hear it. So he tried to take a leaf out of Ziva's book and closed his eyes to listen. It was amazing what one could find when they stopped looking. It came alive and after a short time he stopped feeling like he was missing out on the visual experience because the auditory one more than made up for it. Out of respect, he did open them again to honour those on stage. Beside him, her little face held a satisfied smile.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

When it finished they applauded, the curtain had come up and the lights shone again. Ziva's face was tracked with tears that he knew were for her sister. They sat there for a while still taking it all in and he placed a hand on her knee to let her know she could take all the time she needed. Her eyes remained closed as those below them left the main room, the orchestra members beginning to file out as well. He wouldn't hurry her along, he had decided.

" _Yom huledet same'ach achot tze'irah_." She whispered after a time. " _Ani mitgahahgahat eylayich_." (Happy Birthday little sister. I miss you every day.)

She slipped off of her seat wiping away tears and stretched her hand up for Tony to take. He did so kindly, and led her out of their box, down the stairs and out of the opera house. He knew it was late and she had school tomorrow but he felt that tonight was something he ought to help her celebrate. Instead of taking her straight to the car, they walked down the street and got some ice cream from a stall a little way down He passed the cone down to her while she took smiling.

" _Toda_."

The pair of them walked down the street, a set whom nobody would understand. The man who knew the intricacies of this little girl deeper than anyone else, and the child who knew just what to say and when to say it to help the aging bachelor. And it was different than it used to be, it had to. But different isn't always worse. Change doesn't always take away from what once was. Sometimes, it just makes it brighter.

 **Currently we are at an amazing 89 reviews! Could we possibly hit 100 by the next chapter update? Please, REVIEW!**

 **And of course, as always, thank you.**


	15. Heights

**Fine, you guys win. I was gonna hold off until I reached 100 reviews however you guys forced my hand by holding it at 99 for two days straight! Two days! At 99! Haha, anyway enjoy.**

 **My first exam is on Thursday and they're going on until the 30th of May so I'm afraid we wont have many updates (though you may not realise as I've not been great with that recently, sorry). I have one more chapter written which I'll publish probably on Thursday to mark the beginning of my exams. The only reason I've even got these two is because I stayed up last night to watch the Scottish election results roll in. Anyway, enough from me.**

"That ought'a do it." McGee said triumphantly as he finished setting up the laptop.

With her head in her hands, Ziva looked on bored out of her mind. Truthfully, it hadn't taken long however she possessed a very limited attention span. She'd attempted to distract herself by reading however Tim had told her to put the book down and dragged her back in. Then she'd began colouring (an activity that she'd never much cared for) but he'd taken her away from that as well.

"Finally." She mumbled, propping herself up. "Can I go outside now?"

"Ziva." He chided gently. "I thought you wanted your own computer."

"I do." She moaned. "It's just taking forever."

"Right, well we're almost done." Tim then proceeded to show her how to work it. He brought up google docs and chrome, explained how to use each one effectively and in considerably too much detail.

In all of three minutes she interrupted him. "Yes, Tim. I _know_ how to use a computer."-She cocked her head and drawled sweetly-"Can I play on it now?"

"Erm...yeah...sure." McGee stuttered as he shuffled his chair to the side.

Her chair screeched as she dragged it into place. Little fingers danced across the keyboard clumsily. While Ziva had one been a good typist, the muscle memory was gone and she hadn't used a keyboard in months.

Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder and left to get his promised coffee. When he got down stairs he found Gibbs with a stack of paperwork spread out on the table. It unfortunately reminded him of his own stack waiting for him at the office. Still, he made both men a coffee before taking a seat across from his boss and began sipping away. It felt awkward as Tim was waiting for him to speak, which with Gibbs could last a lifetime. Yet he sipped: waited. Gibbs looked over his glasses at the younger man and even with his own deteriorating vision he could see the anxiousness stretched across the poor man's face.

"The book's good, Tim." He praised. Tim's face lit up. It always shot a pang threw Gibbs when he saw that look. It was that of a child who had never been told how brilliant he was, a child who scraped together every kind word he'd ever heard just to make a sentence. It always reminded him how he had to take special care of his team because none of his field agents had had the best of childhoods. "Tell 'em to print it. Remember us when you make your millions."

Tim stooped his head as the blush crept up his cheeks and burrowed his head in his coffee. Gibbs grinned affectionately before returning his attention to his paperwork. He'd barely managed to read two lines when Ziva came barrelling down the stairs and to their sides. She stood excitedly bobbing up and down with her face screwed up in anticipation. Excitement practically radiated from her.

"Do not say no right away." She spluttered out but she couldn't wait for him to promise that. "There's a Krav Maga class just down the road! Can I go?"

"When's it on?"

"Wednesday after school."

"On your laptop?" She nodded. "I'll take a look later."

Ziva looked like she was about to continue selling it however decided against it and returned up the stairs. Gibbs watched her disappear. He wanted her away from the violence of her previous life which was one of the reasons he was pleased she'd taken up ballet. She seemed so excited though. He knew she'd be good at it and he wanted her to still be able to protect herself in fifteen years time. He wanted her to still be safe. Also, the more time she spent in activities after school, the easier it would be when Jackson went home.

"You seen Dad?" Gibbs asked with that thought emanating in his mind. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen him.

"Not since I came in," Tim replied, "and we were up in Ziva's room so he's not taking a nap."

Gibbs got up and moved over to the island counter where his phone was sitting. He hit speed dial number 6 and listened to the line ring. Just about to give up, a familiar voice picked up. He sighed inaudibly with relief.

"Where are you, dad?" Gibbs asked.

"In the garden, where'd you think I am?"

Gibbs hung up and ventured out to see what the man was doing. When he did, he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it earlier in the day. His aging father was halfway up a tree brandishing a hammer and planks of wood constructed to be what he could only imagine was the beginning of a tree house.

"Dad, get down from there!" He bellowed. The only thing he could imagine was the old man slipping and a trip to the hospital.

"In a minute, son." Jack evidently was undeterred and added, "Go an' get me a coffee will yah?"

Gibbs turned to McGee who had followed him out. "Spot him for me."

While McGee and Gibbs had only been out of the house for two minutes at most, Ziva had already began her occupation of the living room. She stood on the back of a couch clutching the sword she'd used for halloween however this time she had a scarf tied around one eye and was swooshing the sword around like a pirate forcing someone to walk the plank. She leapt triumphantly from the back of one couch onto the other yelling in delight.

"Ziva! Get down, now!" Yelled Gibbs, making her own shout seem like nothing but a whisper.

The sudden noise scared her and she slipped from the back onto the seat and tumbled down to the floor. Gibbs winced as her head missed the coffee table by mere inches. Perhaps shouting had not been a smart idea but the image of his father up that tree was still burned into his mind's eye when he entered. She sat up and dragged the scarf off her head, looking shamefully down at the floor. Gibbs flicked on the coffee maker then made his way over to her.

"You ok?" He inspected her arm which was a little red with carpet burn. Ziva nodded but her unintentionally pouted lip told a different story. "Anything else hurt?"

Again, she nodded-warily this time-before rubbing her upper leg and her bum where she'd fallen. He picked her up and kissed her cheek as he returned to fix his dad's coffee.

"Don't jump on the couches, Ziva. We've been over this." He picked up the cup with one hand while making sure she was secure at his hip on the other side. "Still sore?"

"Yeah." She mumbled. She'd expected to be yelled at and as such had held back the fact that she was actually in a lot of pain. She knew it wasn't hospital worthy and as such had decided it wasn't worth commenting on. Still, she was glad her daddy had voluntarily comforted her. When they got to the garden Jack was down from the tree and explaining his concept to Tim who nodded away seemingly very eager. Gibbs passed him the coffee.

"What were you doing up a tree? You're as bad as her." Gibbs juttered his head towards Ziva.

Jack took a sharp intake of breath as he straightened his back. "I was doing it for little miss, actually. Thought she could do with a treehouse."

"I didn't mean for you to build it." Ziva spluttered before she could catch herself. She looked guiltily at Gibbs before dropping her eyes to the ground. "I mean...I wanted you to convince daddy to build one because he always says no."-Gibbs turned her round so he could look her in the eyes properly-"I didn't want Grandpa Jack up a tree, I promise, even if it got me a treehouse."

The sincerity on her face and the worry etched in her eyes stopped him from chewing her out. He shifted her back onto his hip and looked up at the scaffolding of his father's creation. He'd put in at least a couple of hour's work which meant it was too much to tear down but he also couldn't send his dad back up the tree which also meant he'd have to finish it. God, his daughter could be clever even if it wasn't quite what she'd planned.

"Go play inside, Ziver and stay off the couches." He put her down and she disappeared inside. "So, dad, what's the plan?"

Jackson explained his plans for a small hut-maybe 4 by 4 feet-and a very small landing with a balcony by the front of the hut with a rope ladder dangling down. He'd started using some wood he'd found in the basement however to carry on much further a trip to a store would be in order.

"Think of it as my going away present."

"Oh no, you're not going back up there. I'll finish it." Gibbs told him with no room for argument.

"Fine, son. If that's what you want." And the older man returned inside the house. Gibbs stopped for a moment to realise what had happened. Though Ziva had been playing an inside source to wrangle a treehouse out of her father, Jack had known just how to get it. He'd no intention of finishing it when he started. He had to keep those two schemers away from each other.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Later on once dinner had been eaten and it was getting close to Ziva's bedtime, Gibbs had taken her up for a bath. Once she'd striped down and stepped in he noticed the large bruise forming on her leg and bum where she'd fallen. He glanced at her. It'd hurt more than she'd let on. The fact that she kept squirming until all weight was on the left side just reinforced that belief. If it had hurt so much he couldn't understand why she wouldn't have told him.

"I looked at the class you were showing me earlier." He told her. "If you can tell me how you'll get there you can go."

Gibbs grinned as her little face screwed up trying to work out an appropriate way for a five year old to travel the distance between school and the gym where it was held. She knew he wouldn't agree with her walking or taking a bus, at least for a couple of years.

"I could take a taxi." She suggested. Before he could argue she added, "and the amount made by staying in work would make up for it. I could sit afterwards for a little bit until you can pick me up, then you'll make even more money."

It actually wasn't too bad an idea considering the fact they could set up a standing order for a taxi and she had her phone on her. The class finished at four thirty and it would take her until at least twenty to until she would be ready to leave. He had checked out the gym online and there was a cafe upstairs where she could sit for twenty minutes. Though he'd still leave work early, he'd be in for an extra two hours. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it though. She was only five and the world wasn't always a good place.

"We'll see." But his smile betrayed the tone of his voice and she knew she'd struck gold with the suggestion.

"On my fifth birthday Eli decided that I was old enough to play his 'secret missions' with Ari. He left us in the woods and we had to find our way out. Ari stopped coming when I was seven because he moved away and Tali joined me when I was nine. We never went all together though, and Tali never went all alone. Abba taught Ari how, Ari taught me how and I taught Tali." Ziva explained. "My best time with Ari was two hours and thirty three minutes but one of the last times before Tali came I beat it by twenty minutes. But when Tali came she slowed me right down and we never quite met our other scores."

Gibbs gritted his teeth. On its own, that story wouldn't have been quite so bad however with the multitude of other snippets of stories he had heard, that was just the tip of the iceberg. He hated hearing how Eli had justified training exercises as games.

"So…" She returned to the point of her story, "I think I could get two feet out of the school into a taxi and go ten feet from the taxi to the gym without getting lost."

He smiled at her and wondered how she could have a look like that with all that she knew of the world. Maybe that's why she looked like that, because she'd survived everything it could throw at her and she was still kicking.

"I know you could, sweetpea." He told her and reached for the towel. She stepped out of the bath and was wrapped tightly. "New pyjamas from Abby or old pyjamas?"

She pointed to the cosy-looking footsie pyjamas Abby had given her for her birthday. She'd never had a pair and she was looking forward to the new attire. Gibbs drained the bath once she was ready and stood with a hand to his aching back. He couldn't keep kneeling like that if he wanted to be able to walk.

"Teeth, book and bed. Be up in a minute." Ziva turned to brush her teeth but Gibbs didn't let go of her hand. "Why didn't you tell me how much that hurt?"

Ziva shrugged her shoulders but under the scrutiny of his glare she said, "Abba would've hit me for going against his orders and it would have been worse if I'd complained."

He sighed and pulled her in for a tight hug. The thought of anybody hitting his baby churned his insides. It was bad enough thoughts like that before but now he could look at her and see what the man had taken for granted.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

"Daddy!" Groggily Gibbs was shaken awake. "Daddy! Daddy wake up, now!

The urgency in his daughter's voice forced him to peel his eyes open properly and look at her. She was standing by side rather than lying beside him and she shifted from foot to foot. He didn't sit up but managed to prop his head up by his hand.

"I need to go to the toilet-now!"

"Well go." He answered gruffly and tried to roll back over but she persisted.

"I can't!"

This time he forced himself up properly and looked at her but he was still caught up in sleep. Instead of waiting for him, she grabbed at his hands and pulled them to the zip on the back of the pyjamas. Suddenly realising the problem, he assisted her and she sprinted off to the bathroom, the door slamming loudly behind her. Perhaps the pyjamas hadn't been the best of ideas if she couldn't even go to the toilet by herself. When she returned she was striping out of them. As there was no wet patch between her legs he knew she'd made it on time. He ran his hand through his hair. He was so tired.

"Ziva, what're you doing?"

"If I need to pee I need to go and I'm not wearing them." Replied a now stark naked little girl.

"Grandpa's sleeping, I can't get you another pair tonight."

"That's ok." She climbed into the bed and pulled the covers right up.

"We'll leave it unzipped, put them on."

"No, I'm ok." And turned over.

He was too tired to argue. Reluctantly, he ventured over to the cupboard and took down a blanket and tucked it around her tiny frame. It was moments like that which he knew her previous life was far away. He could barely imagine what adult-Ziva would say if she could witness it. But she couldn't. She had her next checkup at the hospital next week and he wondered if they'd count something like that as positive or negative. Something he had learned on the job was that once you lose innocence, you can't get it back. Or could you? Sometimes he wondered.

 **Who'll be number 100 this time? (And I do expect _at least_ one review!) Number 100 gets a shoutout. Please REVIEW! Pretty Please. **

**And thanks for sticking with me :)**


	16. Parent's Night

**Sorry this is mainly speech however I felt it was an important chapter.**

 **Also some of you were complaining that I'm 'holding my story hostage for reviews'. I'm promise I'm not, I was just so excited about hitting 100, that's all, especially right before my exams. Anyway, sorry it came across that way. On that note, thank you to GuestG who gave me number 100 and thanks to everyone else who has reviewed up to this point** :)

 **Oh, and Josh, thanks! I was having a girls' night and you absolutely made it for us! You were a big hit.**

Gibbs waited in the gym hall with countless other parents waiting for his slot with Miss Lannert. He had expected to be one of the latest slots-19:20-however with the hoards of others waiting he decided he really couldn't be. To his left was a couple, probably older or the same age as he was, with a six year old sitting in between them. He had too-large glasses and a preppy outfit he had always felt was the perfect example of what private schools dole out. Through his life, however, he'd met others that had changed his mind: Tony, for instance. They weren't all stuck-ups. Ziva was sitting across the hall with one of her friends-Michael or Aiden, he wasn't sure. She looked tiny in comparison, he mused as he watched the pair.

"Mr Gibbs?" Her teacher called.

He hoisted himself up from his seat and moved to sit across from her. They exchanged formalities.

"Well, to begin with I'd like to say Ziva is a very bright and precocious child." She said with a large smile. "Her reading comprehension, writing, arithmetic, language abilities, are all way above her age range. Ziva knows her American history down to the letter, erm...yeah...a fantastic little girl, you've done a good job."-Miss Lannert passed him over some work she'd completed-"In most areas she scores very highly. Lewis, her tutor, raves about her. He's very impressed. They're working on learning the basics of Mandarin. As you can see."

Gibbs looked over the work done by his daughter and one photo of her sitting with two pupils writing in Mandarin on a board.

"I've had her work through an independent history project of her choice. I wanted to see how she could cope with the computer, how long she could sit for, erm...work with others, etc. I think she's more than capable. She's very excited to learn. There was some discussion with other teachers about whether we should get her started on college courses however I just don't think she's emotionally or socially ready for it. We can arrange a meeting with other members of staff if you disagree but I think she should wait at least a couple of years until she's settled better. There's always going to be time for her to complete them later but she only gets one chance in this crucial stage of development."-Gibbs nodded in agreement and allowed her to continue-"Ziva's arithmetic is advanced for her age, probably around a sixth grade level I'd say, but I'd like to get her working harder on it. If you give her a problem she'll always work through it with reasonable success but it's definitely behind her literacy skills."

Miss Lannert glanced down a piece of paper with a list on it. Once she'd picked up where she was in the conversation, she met his eyes again.

"Erm...she's displayed an interest in music and we'd like to get her out of the class to learn an instrument once a week, with your permission." Gibbs nodded, indicating he was happy with it. "If you could just sign that to say she can be taken out of class for forty minutes every week then. I think she'll really benefit from it. So...erm...have you got any questions for me? I know I've just been talking away here."

"How's her behaviour?" He was well aware he had a very intelligent daughter and he was very proud of her for that. The lack of phone calls home had made him think they were just saving them all up for parent/teacher night.

"Well…" Miss Lannert lulled. "There's really nothing wrong with her behaviour, if you know how to handle her. If you're condescending or patronising she picks up on it right away and you're going to be in for a difficult time. Ziva's a good kid and if you treat her with respect she gives it back to you. Other pupils however, they know she's a hothead and sometimes like to rile her up. I'm trying to work on that with her. I keep an eye on her in the playground if I can. She really is a good kid, you should be proud."

Gibbs allowed a glance over to where Ziva was sitting with her friend. The boy said something and they both burst out in laughter. A parent near-by glanced at the two like something was said that shouldn't have been. He turned back to the teacher.

"How's she fitting in?"

"Well, you can see her with Aiden over there. He's in our first grade class. I taught him last year, he's a good boy-so's Michael. Within the class, she gets on pretty well with Emily. I think they go to ballet together, am I right?" Gibbs confirmed the statement. "Sophie and Ziva don't get on at all, unfortunately. I've had to split them up a few times. Other than that there's kids that get on with her, others that rub her up the wrong way, sometimes one can do both in the space of ten minutes. Just kid stuff. Ziva does as well with social skills as anyone in the class. You can go along to the class to see some more of her work and her project. Ziva seemed very excited about showing you earlier."-He made a move to leave but he was stopped-"Sorry, I almost forgot. You know she has an imaginary friend?"

He grinned. "Yeah, I noticed."

"It's very sweet. She talks away to her in class. Sometimes if we're in the middle of quiet time I have to remind her chatting's not allowed right now. We've not had an imaginary friend in our class for a good number of years."

Gibbs said goodbye to the teacher and nodded Ziva over. She waved goodbye to Aiden before running after him, grabbing his hand when she met him. He pulled her into his side affectionately as pride bubbled over. _His_ little girl. His _bright_ and _precocious_ little girl.

She took him along to her class and showed him the artwork on the walls and pointing out which one was her own. Now _that_ looked like it was the work of a five year old: beautiful and perfect but completely ambiguous to its purpose. She then dragged him over to her table to show him the work placed neatly on top.

"I've been working on a history project. I got to pick my topic and research it almost all by myself." Ziva picked up a green folder and thrust it into his hand before digging about for something else. "And I've been learning Mandarin-look."

He fumbled with the newest piece of work as he returned the folder to the desk. It was a book of different coloured card tied together with ribbon. Inside he noted the lines of crude Mandarin by pictures he knew were created via Ziva's tiny hand. She opened her history project and showed it to him. He screwed his eyes at the paper for a second before realising it wasn't in English.

"Spanish, Zivers?"

"Yes. It's the Spanish Civil War and the death of General Francisco Franco, why would I write about it in English?" Her face showed genuine query rather than an attempt to sound clever, as though it would be odd for her to write it in a language that the history did not originate from. "I mean, there are many official languages there but I only know one. They call it Castilian."

"Enjoy history?" He asked and filed it away with the rest of her work.

"It's my favourite after languages." She brushed the hair out of her eyes absently.

"'M proud of you, sweatpea." _For everything_ , he wanted to add however held his tongue.

She shot him a huge smile. "I'm proud of you too."

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

"I see Chinese. Was someone good?" Jack asked as Gibbs and Ziva entered the house.

Ziva jumped onto his lap gave a teasing smile. "As silver."

"Gold." Gibbs corrected.

"Get 'em mixed up all the time." Jack appeased Ziva with a grin.

"Do you have to go back to Stillwater at the end of the month?" She asked pleadingly but didn't say the thing she wanted to.

"Sorry, darling. I left Cal in charge of the store while I'm here and I can't leave him any longer." When she looked away he added, "but you can come visit any time."

"Will you come back during the holidays?"

Jack looked over to Gibbs who didn't turn to comment. "I...don't know Ziva. We'll have to see."

"Chinese." Gibbs announced as he dished out the meals on the table.

Ziva slipped off his lap and climbed up to the table. Gibbs and Jackson shared a look; one of two estranged men who were only just getting on good terms again. They hadn't come to too many blows while Jack was staying but if Ziva hadn't been there they might have. There was a silent agreement that they would discuss it later and they joined Ziva at the table to enjoy their celebratory meal. By the time it was finished it was nearing nine o'clock.

"Bedtime sweetpea, be up in fifteen for a story."

Ziva sighed dramatically and huffed her way up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, Gibbs returned his attention to his father. Before he could get a word in, Jackson was talking.

"I don't think I'll make it back for the holidays."

"Didn't think you would." There was no real malice behind his words though he wasn't sure whether that had been conveyed.

"If I'm leaving on the twenty-ninth, LJ, I can't very well make it back for the eighth to the twenty seventh, can I?" Jack retorted. "It's a long drive and I've got the store."

"I haven't talked to Ziva 'bout how we're celebrating yet." Gibbs had brainstormed how they were planning on taking the holidays. With Ziva being Jewish, she'd politely joined in on their Christmases when invited in the past however she'd never really jumped in feet first. He assumed she'd have the same trepidation this time around. When he'd casually mentioned it to Jack, he suggested Gibbs ask her if she wanted to teach them how to celebrate Hanukkah as well. He knew it would go down well, he just hadn't had a chance to bring it up.

"Look, dad." Gibbs sighed almost angrily. "You don't have to come back down. Just don't be a stranger. Ziva's been messed around a lot and she's become attached. She's gonna miss you."

Jack looked offended. "She's my granddaughter. I love her. And if I remember correctly it wasn't me or Joanne keeping our distance from Kelly. That one was all on you."

Those words shot through Gibbs. He slammed his hands on the table as he got up. Gibbs glared at his father for as long as he could and when the man didn't add to his previous remark, he took himself down to the basement. He wouldn't hear of Kelly being used to hurt him. It was true, Gibbs had kept Kelly away from Shannon's mother and as he didn't get along particularly well with Jackson, he hadn't had much opportunity with the little girl either. But he wouldn't let him use her like that. He let out a long breath which shook his body as he tried to hold back the image of Kelly. He had thought that taking in Ziva would make all those feeling raw but it hadn't. Of course there were times, times when her little voice carrying the word 'daddy' shook him so hard he thought Kelly was there. Ultimately though, being there for Ziva helped him in the fact he hadn't been there for Kelly. He'd been away so much. He was away when she died. When his _baby_ died. And his father had just used her memory to score a point.

Jackson sat shamefully by the table before picking up the Chinese containers. He wasn't sure why he'd said that. He _needed_ to get back. People back in Stillwater depended on him and he'd already spent so long with Ziva and Jethro. After the containers were cleared away he decided to do the bedtime ritual for his son. Not for the first time, he questioned how he would have survived if LJ had gone too when Shannon passed away. He couldn't blame his son for being angry. When he turned into Gibbs' room he found Ziva lying in the bed with a stuffed animal batting its legs back and forth. He plastered a smile on his face and sat down beside her.

"I asked your daddy if I could read you your story tonight. So, what'll it be?"

Ziva turned on her side in the opposite direction. "No, thank you."

"Ziva, what's wrong?" He placed his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.

"I heard what you said to daddy."

"It's not nice to eavesdrop."

"And it's not nice to say things just to hurt people."

Sadly, he stooped his head. "I know."

When she didn't respond positively he gave up, said goodnight and kissed her cheek. On his way out he spared a glance back to his sulking granddaughter. She looked nothing like Kelly-where Kelly had pale skin Ziva had a natural tan, Kelly's hair was mousy brown and Ziva's was almost black, Kelly had been tall and Ziva was tiny-but they shared such similarities at times he had to wonder how Gibbs didn't just break down. He hesitated at the stairs as he considered going to apologise to his son however he decided to leave it. Gibbs was a man who had to be left for a time. Something drew him to Kelly's room and he tried the door. It was locked but he ran his hand over the top of the door frame and knocked down the key. Jack assumed it was locked to keep Ziva out rather than adults. The room was a shocking wave of nostalgia for him. It was a pale purple, the colour Shannon had chosen when she was pregnant. There were Strawberry Shortcake dolls scattered where they'd been left on the floor by the window, hair ties and drawings on her desk and her favourite push up pop candy on her bedside table. Nothing had been touched since she died, that much was evident. Something caught his eye on the bulletin board above the desk and he ventured to it. Tacked up, was a fishing hook beside a picture of LJ and Kelly with rods.

"Taught her how to fish that day. She rode a pony the beach in the afternoon." A voice from the door explained. "She asked me if she could keep it, said it was the best day."

Jack pinged the hook with his finger but couldn't pull his eyes away from the sparkling blue eyes of Kelly in the photo. He missed his granddaughter too. He managed to turn around where LJ was standing aside to let him out. He obliged and Gibbs locked the door behind them.

"Think I might be tired." Jack said though he was wide awake and with no desire to sleep. "Night, son."

Gibbs did a double take on Kelly's room. The only thing he'd changed about it since her death were the letters on the door which had spelled out 'Kelly' He'd taken them down and put them on her desk, drew the curtains and locked the door. For now, he returned to the basement where countless hours had been spent drinking away their memory and using hard labour to take away the edge. That had lessened quite considerably in the last few months however now he felt he wanted to. The only amendment he made was drinking himself into oblivion, something he wouldn't do when he would be sharing a bed with his young daughter.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

At around three am Gibbs was still working away in the basement. As it was nearing Christmas, he did what he always did. He built toys to take to the children's hospital. There weren't very many yet however he knew they'd accumulate over the next month so he could make a Christmas Eve delivery. The staff there had become very fond of him as was he of them. Something drew Gibbs' eyes up to the door and he caught sight of Ziva watching him from the spot she'd killed Ari. He wondered if she remembered and if it still hurt her. He waved her down because he didn't want to think about it.

"What're you doing?" Ziva asked, now from the bottom of the stairs.

"Nothin' much. What're you doing up?"

"I...could not sleep." Gibbs let her climb up onto his lap and he kissed her crown. She'd had a bad dream, he could tell. "If you and Grandpa Jack stop talking to each other does that mean I wont see him?"

Gibbs pulled away to look into her eyes. "You been eavesdropping?"

"He was mean to you but..." She hesitated but the words then tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them, "Joanne Fielding said the same thing about Kelly and I don't want him to leave forever."

"Grandpa loves you, Ziver. We're gonna visit him again, ok? But he can't come back for the holidays." Gibbs tried to explain.

"But what if you fall out again?" Her doe eyes looked right into his soul, so much that it hurt.

"Ziva...people learn from their mistakes." He admitted. "And hopefully, they don't make them again."

That was why he was there, wasn't it? He had Ziva so he could make up for those mistakes with Kelly and so she could heal from the mistakes her father had refused to fix. It was for the same reason he'd brought Jackson to stay with them. He'd been making too many mistakes and he needed a chance to get things right. Gibbs lifted Ziva up do she could sit on the work bench and then retrieved something from the shelf and handed it to her. It was a small whittled bear which fit almost perfectly in her hand.

"Did you make it?" She turned it over. "It's like Brother Bear."

"Yeah, that was the plan."

"Can you show me how?"

When Gibbs was about six his grandfather had taught him how to whittle and she was familiar with how to be safe with knives. "If you promise to be careful and listen to everything I tell you. But not tonight, sweetpea. Time for bed."

She seemed to accept that and obligingly allowed him to lift her off the bench to the floor. She led them up with the little bear clutched tightly in her fist. He didn't have any suitable children's knives in his possession for obvious reasons. Still, he would buy her one and ensure she could be responsible. Though he was still far from asleep once he'd settled Ziva back in, he decided to get ready for bed anyway. Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, he contemplated it all like he had so many times before and as always he came to the same conclusion: if he could just get through each day with reasonable success, then he was doing just fine. He just had to keep trudging along- _for her._ He did all of this for his Ziver.

 **The end bit has been gnawing on me since I read 'With Finger Grit' by born30. It's an excellent story currently in progress so I recommend you read it.**

 **As always REVIEW and thank you :)**


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